The Head Start program is the national leader in providing high-quality early education and services, especially for children who are furthest from opportunity. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published a final rule, Supporting the Head Start Workforce and Consistent Quality Programming, making significant changes to the Head Start Program Performance Standards (the Performance Standards) to stabilize the Head Start workforce and to improve the quality of the comprehensive services on which Head Start families rely.

The final rule in the Federal Register contains a complete description of the changes. The preamble of the final rule provides the reasoning and research that supports the finalized changes, including how ACF incorporated feedback from public comments in the final rule.

The changes to the Performance Standards can be summarized in three categories — better compensation for Head Start staff, broad integrating mental health services, and effectively and equitably meeting the evolving needs of communities.

Significantly increase compensation for many Head Start staff.

Head Start program staff are the cornerstone of the Head Start mission to provide high-quality early education and comprehensive services to children and families who need them. The updated Performance Standards require that programs compensate Head Start staff to reflect the demands and educational requirements of their positions. The regulations require that Head Start staff are paid a sufficient wage based on the cost of living in their area. The updated Performance Standards will enable dedicated Head Start staff to build sustainable careers around the challenging, yet rewarding, jobs of supporting the children and families who need them. Programs will be able to hire and retain qualified and experienced staff, reversing trends of high turnover in Head Start programs across the nation.

Integrate mental health services into Head Start programming more broadly.

Several changes to the Performance Standards improve mental health supports in Head Start programs. The revised Performance Standards better integrate mental health into every aspect of program services, and strengthen the role of mental health consultation. These changes address the increasing rates of mental health concerns in children and adults in Head Start programs and facilitate a proactive, multidisciplinary approach to support the overall well-being of children, families, and staff.

Enhance services to help Head Start programs effectively meet the evolving needs of the communities they serve.

The updated Performance Standards promote consistent quality services across Head Start programs. They support core Head Start principles such as implementing enhanced comprehensive services and serving the children who are most in need. The Performance Standards now address income eligibility concerns by accounting for excessive housing costs and reflecting recent statutory changes to income eligibility requirements for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs.

Major Performance Standard Changes

Highlights of the specific changes to the Head Start Program Performance Standards are summarized below. For a comprehensive list of changes, access our resource that tracks the changes from the previous Performance Standards, or read the full Final Rule Federal Register notice.

Workforce Supports

To improve staff wages, the Performance Standards include the following:

• Head Start programs must pay staff competitive wages with an updated salary scale or pay structure that applies to all positions. 
• Most programs must pay annual salaries to these staff that are at least the same as preschool teachers in public school settings, or 90% of kindergarten teacher salaries, taking into account qualifications, experience, responsibilities, and hours worked.
• Wages must be comparable across Head Start Preschool and Early Head Start programs.
• Most programs must pay all staff a wage that is at least sufficient to meet basic cost of living in the local area.

Additional flexibility

• Smaller agencies (200 or fewer funded slots) are exempt from some of the wage requirements; however, they must still establish a salary scale and make measurable progress toward increasing wages over time.

To improve staff benefits, the Performance Standards include the following:

• For full-time staff, most programs must:
  • Provide or facilitate access to health care coverage
  • Offer paid leave
  • Offer access to free or low-cost short-term behavioral health services
• For part-time staff, programs must facilitate access to health care coverage.
• For any eligible staff, programs must facilitate connections to child care subsidies and public service loan forgiveness.
• Smaller agencies (200 or fewer funded slots) are exempt from some of the benefit requirements, but they must make improvements in staff benefits over time.

To enhance staff wellness and engagement, the Performance Standards include the following:

• Programs must provide each staff member with regular breaks during their work shifts that are of adequate length based on hours worked.
• Programs must cultivate a management style that positively promotes high-quality job performance.

Mental Health

Addressing mental health supports, the Performance Standards:

• Require programs to use a multidisciplinary approach to mental health and wellness supports and encourages programs to use a team-based approach.
• Clarify expectations for program-wide wellness supports.
• Require programs to provide mental health consultation services at least monthly, with flexibilities to meet this requirement in coordination with behavioral health support specialists that are credentialed and trained in their field.
• Integrate mental health into support services for families.
• Facilitate proactive screening and follow-up for children’s mental health needs.
• Incorporate strengths-based language throughout the Performance Standards. 
• Provide clearer requirements and definition of suspension.

Other Quality Improvements

To better engage with families, the Performance Standards:

• Establish a maximum caseload of 40 families per family service worker to facilitate delivery of high-quality family support services, including health, parenting, and economic support, which requires a dedicated, individualized approach.
• Provide flexibilities for programs to exceed the maximum family service worker caseload in periods of staff absence, or in emergency/recovery situations. Additionally, waivers are required when exceeding the maximum caseload on a long-term basis. 
• Require the use of effective, accessible forms of communication in all interactions with families.
• Streamline enrollment processes to minimize burden on families.
• Align with recent statutory changes providing increased flexibility in eligibility requirements for AIAN and MSHS programs.

To improve child health and safety, the Performance Standards:

• Clarify which “significant” safety incidents should be reported to ACF as soon as possible but within seven days.
• Enhance prevention of safety incidents.
• Protect children from exposure to lead in water and paint through regular testing and inspection and, if needed, remediation and abatement in Head Start facilities where lead exists.

To identify and meet community needs, the Performance Standards:

• Require programs to identify and, if possible, resolve barriers to enrollment and attendance by incorporating these into the existing community assessment process.
• Streamline the process and frequency of the community assessment. Clarifies the intent and goals of the community assessment, as well as the purpose of the annual review in the community assessment process.
• Ensure responsive, high-quality services for expectant families.
• Revise definition of income to provide a clear, finite list of income sources that should be counted for eligibility determination.
• Allow programs to adjust a family’s gross income to account for excessive housing costs in their community for eligibility determination purposes.

Regarding program structure, the Performance Standards:

• Clarify the requirements for:
  • Maximum group size in family child care settings for infants and toddlers and mixed aged preschool groupings.
  • Provider qualifications in family child care settings.
     

« Go to Performance Standards Information Center

Last Updated: August 21, 2024