Dear Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Program Leaders,

I am writing to share about an exciting new policy that impacts your programs. On March 23, President Biden signed into law a new provision that gives additional flexibility to Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs to serve the families they were intended for. This provision allows your programs to serve any child who has at least one family member whose income comes primarily from agricultural employment as defined in the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. It also makes children and families in this category eligible for Head Start services regardless of their total family income.

To be eligible for MSHS before the passage of this provision, a family had to show that their family’s income came primarily from agricultural labor, in addition to meeting income eligibility or other criterion for Head Start services. As you know, it has become increasingly less common for agricultural work to be the primary source of a family’s income as agricultural work has become less available or stable due to unpredictable weather events and higher pay in other industries.

This new provision will address such barriers, while maintaining the requirement that MSHS programs prioritize farmworker families who would benefit from your programs — especially migrant farmworker families who have relocated frequently within the past two years to pursue agricultural work.

The Biden-Harris Administration fought for this important change alongside many of you and other community organizations supporting farmworkers and their families. We are grateful for your partnership in raising this important issue and working with us to see it become law. Our nation’s rich agricultural history has always featured the incredible resilience of farmworkers and their families. Head Start programs take great pride in supporting the legacy of these families and offering new opportunities for their future generations.

This new policy is effective immediately; however, no child who is currently served in an MSHS program should have their enrollment disrupted to accommodate new enrollees who may qualify based on these provisions. You are still required to develop selection criteria to enroll those children who would benefit from your program and to prioritize the children of migrant farmworker families.

The Office of Head Start (OHS) understands that this change will take time to implement and anticipates that you will have questions. We will be issuing a Program Instruction with more details soon. Please feel encouraged to share this guidance with your program managers.

If you have questions about this new policy, please send your questions to MSHSHeadStart at acf dot hhs dot gov.

Sincerely,

/ Khari M. Garvin /

Khari M. Garvin
Director
Office of Head Start

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Last Updated: September 6, 2024