Head Start

Head Start, one of the most popular federal early childhood programs, has delivered comprehensive services to about 16 million low-income preschoolers during the past 33 years. Since its inception, Head Start costs have totaled $35 billion, and its annual funding has increased substantially in recent years. The administration recently proposed a significant funding increase for Head Start to expand the program's annual enrollment to one million children by 2002. At the same time, Congress, the executive branch, and taxpayers have become more concerned about ensuring the accountability of federal programs. This report evaluates how the Department of Health and Human Services ensures that Head Start programs are held accountable for complying with laws and regulations and for achieving program results. GAO discusses (1) the extent to which Head Start's mission, goals, and objectives provide an overall framework that emphasizes compliance with applicable laws and regulations and achievement of program results; (2) how well Head Start's processes ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations; and (3) how well Head Start's processes ensure the ability to determine whether the program's purposes have been achieved.

GAO noted that: (1) Head Start has, through the years, provided a comprehensive array of services and, as envisioned by the Government Performance and Results Act, has in recent years substantially strengthened its emphasis on determining the results of those services; (2) its processes still provide too little information, however, about how well the program is achieving its intended purposes; (3) HHS has developed a performance assessment framework that effectively links program activities with the program's overall strategic mission and goal; (4) this framework also includes measurable objectives for how the program will be implemented and what outcomes will be achieved; (5) HHS has new initiatives that will, in the next few years, provide information not previously available on outcomes such as gains made by children and their families while in the program; (6) currently, however, these initiatives are limited to assessing outcomes at the national level, not at the local agency level; (7) in addition, GAO is not convinced that these initiatives will provide definite information on impact, that is, whether children and their families would have achieved these gains without participating in Head Start; (8) although obtaining this kind of impact information would be difficult, the significance of Head Start and the sizeable investment in it warrant conducting studies that will provide answers to questions about whether the program is making a difference; (9) in addition to questions about the program's impact, questions exist about whether Head Start is structured to meet the needs of today's participants who live in a society much changed since the mid-1960s when the program was created; (10) families' needs have changed as more parents are working full time either by choice or necessity; (11) in addition, children and their families can now receive services similar to Head Start's from a growing number of other programs; (12) these social trends raise questions about how well Head Start is structured to meet participants' needs and, if changes are needed, what those changes should be; and (13) a lack of information about the array of community programs available and about actions local Head Start agencies have already taken hinders decisionmakers' ability to respond to these trends.