WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Dale Kildee (D-MI) announced today that the House and Education Labor Committee approved his Improving Head Start Act of 2007 by a strong bipartisan vote of 42-1. The bill is now ready to be debated by the entire House of Representatives.

The Improving Head Start Act of 2007, introduced last week by U.S. Reps. Dale Kildee (D-MI), Mike Castle (R-DE) and George Miller (D-CA), helps more children arrive at school ready to succeed by improving Head Start’s teacher and classroom quality; expanding access to the program; increasing coordination between Head Start and state and local early childhood services and strengthening Head Start’s accountability. 

"Head Start has served our most vulnerable children and families extremely well for 42 years, and more recently, Early Head Start has done the same for infants and toddlers," said Kildee, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.  "These children and their families receive comprehensive educational, family support, health and nutritional services that enable them to succeed in school and in life.  We know that Head Start works, and I believe that this bill will make it work even better."

The Improving Head Start Act of 2007 would:

• Improve Head Start’s workforce quality by increasing funding for teacher and staff salaries and professional development, strengthening the training and technical assistance, and hiring additional qualified staff.
• Strengthen school readiness by re-evaluating and updating current standards and assessments based on the best science, suspending and terminating the badly flawed National Reporting System, and improving professional development related to supporting children's cognitive, social and emotional development.
• Boost coordination by improving cooperation between Head Start and state and local child care programs to increase full-day and full-year services; improving linkages with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, state health, mental health, and family services and assisting programs in aligning Head Start and state early learning standards.
• Expand access to up to 10,000 more children.
• Allow programs to convert portions of their grant for use for Early Head Start, which serves children under three years old.
• Increase accountability by devising a new system of application review that assesses program quality and leads to re-competition of low-quality centers; allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to more quickly strip bad programs of funding and improving the triennial review process.

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