Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

Head Start to Receive $338 Million Increase

Jan 14, 2002

The National Head Start Association scored a huge victory to start off the New Year. On December 19 the House of Representatives voted 393 to 20 to give its final approval to a fiscal year 2002 Labor, HHS, Education and related agencies appropriations bill which increases funding for Head Start by $338 million over fiscal year 2001 funding levels. The next day the Senate followed suit voting 90 to 7 to overwhelmingly approve the bill. President Bush will likely sign the bill into law in the very near future.

The final increase is almost three times the increase proposed by President Bush in his April 2001 budget submission and more than $60 million beyond the level adopted by the House of Representatives. NHSA also ensured that the final bill contained the Senate report language. Our efforts paid off! The final bill's accompanying report included the Senate's language on seamless services and raising the percentage of over-income children in Head Start from 10 percent to 25 percent. Although the language in the report itself does not become law, it does provide guidance to the Department of Health and Human Services with regard to how Head Start should be governed and in what manner funds should be distributed.

NHSA would like to thank you for all the time and hard work it took to make this possible. Without the many Head Start parents, staff, board members, and friends who made calls or wrote letters none of this would have happened.

Our work, of course, is far from done. To keep the pressure on please contact your member of Congress at (202) 224-3121 and thank them for the work they've done. Specifically, mention how Head Start has affected you personally as a parent, teacher or Head Start director. Another good idea is to send New Year's cards made by a class or send a photograph of the children in your class reading books. Don't forget to include an invitation to visit a center in the near future.



If you have any questions, please call (703)739-0875 and ask for the Government Affairs Division.