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Fiscal Year 2011 Head Start Funding Guidance
ACF-PI-HS-11-02

PROGRAM INSTRUCTION [See Attachment at the bottom]

TO: Head Start and Early Head Start Grantees and Delegate Agencies

SUBJECT: Fiscal Year 2011 Head Start Funding Guidance

INSTRUCTION:

President Obama, on April 15th, 2011, signed Public Law 112-10, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011. Included in this Act was the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 appropriation of $7.6 billion for programs under the Head Start Act. This funding will allow programs to continue to serve approximately 965,000 children and families.

The FY 2011 funding level includes $340 million to continue operations for the expansion programs funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, folding half of the expansion funding into the Head Start and Early Head Start base grants. For the 2011-2012 “school year,” this should allow all expansion programs to continue to operate at their full funded enrollment.

Expansion Programs 

Programs that received expansion funding under ARRA will receive funding in September 2011 for a six month continuation of those services. These “expansion programs” will receive additional funds in FY 2012 to operate their expansion services for an additional six months provided that there is no cut to Head Start funding in FY 2012. Therefore these programs should plan to operate for a full year. This will ensure continuity to all expansion services through at least September 2012.  Maintaining the slots funded through these additional funds beyond the FY 2011-2012 school year is contingent on future funding levels.

Your Regional Offices will contact you to provide information on the amount of funds available to your agency this year and to offer further guidance on the application requirements. The application must be submitted on the Standard Form (SF) 424 and contain the appropriate Board and Policy Council approvals, program narrative and budget narrative.

All Programs

Aside from the increase referenced above there are no other increases to programs. The FY 2011 funding level is also the projected level of funds for Head Start programs in FY 2012 until Congress enacts a budget. Grantees should plan to operate at this funding level until a final decision is reached on the FY 2012 appropriation level for the Head Start program. As always, grantees encountering one time needs especially related to health and safety concerns should contact their regional office throughout the year. 

Please see the attached Q&A for more details on this funding and direct any questions to your OHS Regional Office.

/ Yvette Sanchez Fuentes /

Yvette Sanchez Fuentes
Director
Office of Head Start

Attachment:
     Q&A on FY 2011 Funding

See PDF Version of Program Instruction:
     Fiscal Year 2011 Head Start Funding Guidance [PDF, 20KB]