ACF releases final rule on Head Start workforce

Key Takeaways

On August 21, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published a final rule updating the federal Head Start Program. While counties support the regulation’s goal of recruiting and retaining qualified staff for this critical early childhood education program, absent additional federal funding, implementation of these changes may require difficult tradeoffs, such as reducing classroom sizes. 

Highlights of the final rule

Head Start targets children under 5 from low-income families with comprehensive programming to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional and psychological needs and bolster school readiness. The final rule incorporates feedback from organizations, including NACo, requesting greater flexibility for local agencies and a longer implementation timeline:

• Head Start programs must still implement a salary scale or pay structure that promotes competitive wages for all staff positions and is sufficient to cover basic costs of living in the staff member’s area. However, agencies will now have until August 1, 2031 to implement these changes. Additionally, certain requirements will be waived for small agencies with fewer than 200 slots.
• HHS may establish a waiver process in 2028 for the wage requirements if annual Head Start appropriation increases fall below an average of 1.3% over the prior four years.
• New requirements to provide a wide range of benefits for full-time Head Start staff will not take effect until August 1, 2028, with smaller agencies exempt from some benefit requirements.

County impact and call for additional resources

• Counties play a pivotal role in building thriving communities and investing in services that shape early childhood systems, including supporting Head Start by directly serving as local grantees and/or by contributing supplemental funding to support the program.
• While the Head Start final rule is poised to strengthen and stabilize the Head Start workforce, NACo remains concerned about potential tradeoffs due to the absence of additional federal funding.  
• NACo is committed to ensuring that Head Start can continue to provide invaluable services to low-income children and families in an environment in which staff thrive, and will continue to call on Congress to make meaningful investments in the program.