On July 19, 2023, 29 Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) for Designation Renewal System (DRS) grant opportunities were forecasted on grants.gov. Included are 25 NOFOs for Head Start/Early Head Start grants and 4 NOFOs for Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grants.
In many communities, a lack of affordable housing is an ongoing challenge. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, no state in the U.S. has an adequate supply of affordable rental housing for the lowest income renters and rising rental costs often make it difficult to maintain housing. A newly forecasted grant from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services, will help to address these challenges by leveraging the expertise of Community Action Agencies.
Head Start annual reporting is established in Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS), Section §1302.102(d)(2), and is required in the Head Start Act, Section 644(a)(2). To fully address requirements, programs must include a summary of their most recent community assessment in the annual report. Including a summary of the community assessment provides an opportunity to highlight community needs and also offers a chance to provide important context related to other required areas of annual reporting.
Underenrollment is a longstanding issue faced by many Head Start/Early Head Start programs. It continues to present a major challenge for programs and is now coupled with an unprecedented child care staffing crisis. 2023 is the first year the Full Enrollment Initiative is being implemented since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an estimated 225 grant recipients just received letters designating their program as chronically underenrolled.
Promoting excellence in early childhood education to support families and strengthen communities.