Increasing Your Buying Power

At last year's EXPO, STN veteran Denny Coughlin and my favorite Muskogee resident Jim Cameron put on a workshop entitled "Cooperative Bus Purchasing for Head Start Programs." The workshop grew out of a Minnesota state-wide cooperative program that Denny had presented on in 2007. The Minnesota School Bus Purchasing Program allows school districts to purchase school buses through the state, which lowers the overall cost. Imagine all the Head Start programs in your state as one unified buying force, or, better yet, a federal bus purchasing program.
In 2007, Denny presented a similar workshop, "Spec’ing Buses Online," and was gracious enough to allow me to post the PowerPoint presentation from it. If you have any problems downloading it, send me an email.

Head Start Eyes More Money for FY 2010

Last month, the House Appropriations Committee matched President Obama's request for $7.2 billion for next fiscal year, but the National Head Start Association said in its July 24 news feed that it still seeks an additional increase in Senate’s final figure:

The House Appropriations Committee marked up and passed the FY 2010 Labor, Health and Education (“Labor-H”) bill at the end of last week. Not surprisingly, after receiving significant increases this year through the supplemental American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ($2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start) and with President Obama’s request for just $122 million more than Head Start received last year in our regular annual appropriation, the House Appropriations Committee agreed on President Obama’s request for Head Start. It would provide $7.2 billion (the same as the Obama Administration requested and $122 million above FY 2009) to “sustain high-quality, comprehensive early childhood services, including educational, health, nutritional, and social services, to approximately 978,000 low-income children before they enter school, nearly 70,000 over the fiscal year 2008 level.” The full House still needs to vote on the Labor-H bill.

NHSA and numerous partners requested an increase of 1 billion dollars for FY 2010 on top of the current annual appropriation. With the Senate slated to finish its work on all appropriation bills for FY 2010 by Oct. 1, NHSA invited its members to write or call Senate Appropriations Committee and subcommittee members.

Child Passenger Safety

After to talking to SafeGuard's Charlie Vitts at the EXPO last week, I looked into a Yahoo! forum on child passenger safety. There were a number of groups discussing the topic. You can either just read the comments or join one of the groups to contribute or ask further questions.
Thanks Charlie.

Yahoo! Child Passenger Safety Forums

Let the Discussions Begin

By Stephane Babcock

Hello to everyone who did and did not attend the recent STN EXPO in Reno last week. During the Head Start Forum — one of my favorite parts of the conference — we discussed this blog and how we can use it as another forum to discuss Head Start-related issues. We also realized we had a total of 520 years worth of Head Start experience in the room!! We were able to come up with the following list of common concerns:

- eight-way violations
- covering the cost of replacement buses
- buying buses cooperatively
- child safety restraints
- budget/enrollment issues
- pedestrian safety
- parent involvement
- safety training
- education on the bus
- federal and state reviews
- policies and procedures
- federal vs. state regulations

I will create a post for each of the above topics soon (sorry, the next issue is due this week) and open up the discussion to you. Here's the hitch: You have to get involved and post some comments. If you having issues, send me an email or give me a call at the office, 310-802-7812. It was great to see everyone at the conference. The Head Start community packed every class and made this year even better. Hope to hear from you soon. And yes, I misspelled pedestrian as "pedestrial"...

Head Start Students Can Soon Fall Behind Without the School Bus

By Ryan Gray

Need an example of how important school busing is to low-income parents, and why the service is so important to Head Start? Look no further than a recent study performed by the Center on Reinventing Public Education that found a lack of reliable transportation is the main barrier to sending children to better schools outside of their urban neighborhood.

The report was published this month after the center interviewed 600 inner-city parents who earn no more than $75,000 a year. Some interesting findings:

• More than a quarter (27%) of all parents interviewed said they would have chosen a school outside their neighborhood were it not for transportation problems.
• Parents prevented from choosing due to transportation problems indicated less satisfaction with the school attended by their child than parents who sent children to schools other than their nearby school.
• Most children who attend out-of-neighborhood schools are driven by their parents.
• Families now sending their child to charter or private schools have them travel much farther than children going to neighborhood schools.
• Many low-income parents say they would let their child travel farther to a better school, if they could.

Head Start children receive an invaluable service in beginning their education via school bus transportation. But unfortunately, as the survey shows, these children while initially on the right path may soon fall behind if they are unable to receive a better long-term education because they have no way to get there.

Cable Company Donates to Local Head Start Programs

Comcast, a national cable service provider, recently donated over $3,000 to Savannah and Liberty County (Ga.) Head Start programs. Since 2001, the company's Comcast Foundation has donated $1.4 billion in cash and in-kind support to national and local non-profit groups across the country.

As part of Comcast Cares Day, close to 200 Comcast employees in the area helped clean up Head Start centers in both Hinesville and Savannah. Employees and family members raised $2,480 for Savannah's Head Start program and $820 for Liberty County.

Have you worked with local and national charities to help fund your program? Comment below.

Prison Program Allows On-Site Early Head Start Program

While reading a lengthy article on a women's prison in Kentucky that allows weekly bonding time for incarcerated mother and their newborn children, I came across a interesting Head Start program towards the end the of the five-page piece.

At the Washington Corrections Center for Women, the Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) operates an Early Head Start program for female immates who are either pregnant or have newborns:

"Home-based services are also provided by Early Head Start Family Educators to pregnant women and newborns living on J Unit. Services include weekly home (cell) visits to provide prenatal education and information about infant health and development, to screen for maternal depression, and to promote positive parent-child interaction. Family Educators also work with RPP families and corrections staff to develop individualized transition plans as the family approaches release from WCCW. This is done to insure each family will have the support it needs to make a smooth transition back into its community."