Washington, DC – On July 1, 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a $492,063 grant to support Head Start programs in the area. These funds are a direct result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that became law in February of this year. The South Central Human Resource Agency was chosen to administer this grant.

Specifically, these funds are intended to improve compensation for employees of the Head Start program. The grant will support both cost-of-living (COLA) increases to account for higher operating costs and to increase staff salaries and fringe benefits. The Health and Human Services Department announced earlier this year that it expects all Head Start operations to receive a cost-of-living increase for this
fiscal year. These funds are intended not only to raise salaries for current Head Start staff, but to permanently increase the pay-scale for future employees as well.

The grant will also support a similar effort, the “quality improvement funding”, with the goal of improving compensation and benefits, as well as providing continuing education and professional development opportunities for Head Start professionals.

“I am pleased that we could see funds brought back to Tennessee for this important program” said Congressman Lincoln Davis. “Teachers, administrators and others dedicated to the service of our nation’s youth deserve fair pay for their work, and it is my hope that we can continue these efforts so that other talented professionals will want to pursue
this line of work.”

“These funds will allow the agency to give a cost-of-living increase that we have not seen for some time,” said Joann Benson, South Central HRA Head Start Program Director. “Low wages in some of our positions have caused us to have a large turnover thus impairing the continuity of care for children and supervisory staff to be frequently training new staff. These funds will also allow us to replace some of the classroom
materials that are many years old. We are very excited about receiving these additional funds and our hope is that Congress will continue to see value in educating our young children and financially support Head Start and Early Head Start programs that provide those services.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced earlier this year that Head Start and Early Head Start programs will receive funding and be eligible to apply for grants worth $2.1 billion under the (ARRA). Head Start will receive $1 billion, while $1.1 billion will
benefit Early Head Start.

Grants totaling nearly $220 million will allow current Head Start grantees to serve 16,600 additional children and families across America, according to HHS. Grants worth nearly $1.2 billion, will support Early Head Start expansion and allow the program to serve 55,000 more pregnant women, infants, toddlers and their families and nearly double the number of Early Head Start participants.

Head Start was established in 1965 to promote school readiness and provide a comprehensive array of health and social services to four and five year old children and their families. Since then, the program has enrolled more than 25 million. The Early Head Start program was established in 1995 for children from birth to three years of age and pregnant women, with an understanding that a child’s earliest years are extremely important to healthy development.