HHS proposes changes to Head Start standards

Key Takeaways

On August 6, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would significantly revise the Head Start Program Performance Standards. The NPRM proposes removing or revising federal requirements related to teaching, health and safety, comprehensive services, parent engagement, eligibility and program administration.

Head Start preschool programs provide child development services at no cost to families to over 16,000 3- and 4-year-old children each year. For counties that operate, fund or partner with Head Start programs, as well as counties responsible for health, human services, child welfare and early childhood systems, the proposed changes could have significant implications for local programs and the children and families they serve.

What changes does the NPRM propose?

The NPRM represents a shift away from detailed federal Head Start standards and toward greater reliance on state requirements and local program discretion. Proposed changes include:

• Program administration cost caps. The NPRM would lower the maximum administrative-cost cap from 15 percent to 5 percent, although programs could apply to the Office of Head Start (OHS) for a waiver. Only 3.7 percent of Head Start grants currently operate at or below a 5 percent administrative-cost level, while another 27.7 percent operate between 5 and 10 percent. HHS estimates that approximately $754 million would need to shift out of administrative costs. Smaller Head Start providers could face particular challenges because fixed administrative costs are spread across fewer participants.
• Teaching and classroom requirements. The NPRM would remove many federal requirements related to teaching and learning, including requirements for teacher training and coaching, curricula, group sizes and teacher-child ratios. Programs would instead follow their state's child care licensing requirements for group sizes and ratios, regardless of whether the program itself is otherwise required to be licensed. HHS's regulatory analysis estimates a 16 to 32 percent increase in the average number of children per teacher.
• Health, safety and comprehensive services. The NPRM would remove several federal health and safety standards, including requirements for annual staff training on preventing abuse and neglect and the explicit requirement that children be supervised at all times. Programs would rely more heavily on state licensing and child-protection laws, while mandatory reporting requirements and federal reporting of child health and safety incidents would remain. The proposal would also remove many requirements related to health and developmental screenings. This includes requirements to provide a developmental screening within 45 days of enrollment, determine within 90 days whether a child has a medical and dental home and track follow-up care for identified needs.
• Eligibility. The NPRM would eliminate self-attestation as an acceptable form of documentation for determining eligibility. Self-attestation can be particularly important for children experiencing homelessness and families that do not have immediate access to documentation. The proposed standards would also remove language allowing programs to reserve 3 percent of slots for children experiencing homelessness and children in foster care.
• Language instruction. The NPRM would require instruction to be conducted in English, with an exception for Tribal grantees incorporating Tribal languages as part of their heritage. It would also remove existing standards for serving dual-language learners, including provisions supporting children's home languages alongside English. HHS estimates that this provision could affect approximately 18,800 classrooms, or one-third of non-Tribal Head Start settings, and result in approximately $99 million in one-time costs to replace materials and retrain or recruit staff.

What would this mean for counties?

The proposed changes could have implications beyond individual Head Start providers.  

Counties play significant roles in local early childhood systems and often administer or support public health, behavioral health, human services, child welfare and other programs that serve Head Start children and families. Reduced federal requirements for developmental screenings, health and mental health services, follow-up care and other comprehensive services could affect how Head Start programs interact with these county health and human services systems.  

By removing detailed federal standards and relying more heavily on state licensing and other state requirements, the NPRM would increase the importance of local regulatory and service systems that vary across states and communities. Counties may also need to assess how changes in federal requirements interact with existing state and local early childhood, health and human services systems.

Next Steps

The NPRM does not change current Head Start requirements at this time. Comments on the rule are being accepted through October 6, 2026. NACo encourages counties to submit written comments to HHS through the federal portal.  

HHS must review and respond to comments before issuing a final rule, and any changes would take effect only after a final rule is published and an effective date is announced. Head Start programs should continue operating under the existing standards during the rulemaking process.

NACo will continue to engage with HHS regarding the proposed rule and its potential implications for counties and local early childhood systems.