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The New York Times recently published a story called “Cleaner Classrooms and Rising Scores: With Tighter Oversight, Head Start Shows Gains,” in which it reports that Head Start has seen gains in program quality across the board “more than a decade after Congress imposed new standards” that required “a third of its partners… to compete…

Uri Bronfenbrenner, often referred to as the Father of Head Start, wrote early on in the program’s founding that one of the goals of the program was to have parents become “captivated by their own children, supportive of their education & irrationally committed to their children.” Remember, our goal isn’t just to get parents involved…

We recently gave a free webinar on the three entities of Head Start/Early Head Start Program Governance Structure. (Sign up for our mailing list to receive notices about upcoming free webinars). In that webinar, we talked about the roles and responsibilities of each entity, as well as training and reporting requirements. Based on the questions…

The biggest news story for Head Start in 2018 was the program instruction issued from OHS nationally that says that programs will be required to attain full enrollment. After that announcement, full enrollment was a primary topic of conversation for attendees at The Gravely Group’s conferences and workshops. We outlined some of those questions in…

In 1977, Head Start began its first bilingual and bicultural programs. 40 years later, Head Start continues to build productive relationships with families by respecting and responding appropriately to the culture, language, values, and family structures of each family they work with. In fact, it’s a requirement. Immigration as a policy matter has been a…

Head Start prides itself on its ability to connect with and enhance the lives of children from families of varying backgrounds and opportunities.  The program’s services and resources are designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance children’s physical and emotional well-being, and establish an environment to develop strong cognitive skills. But I don’t have to tell…

Here we have another installment for our ongoing series “Head Start Stories,” which uncover the power of Head Start to impact people’s lives long after they leave the program. This story comes to us from Sherri Sharpe, who attended Head Start when it was still a fairly new program, started only 5 years before… Dear…

Office of Head Start (OHS) recently announced an update which will delay compliance requirements for background checks and the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) until September 30, 2019. Under the initial rule, programs were required to comply by September 2017, which was delayed until September 2018. The summary from the updated rule reads: “The…

We’ve reached the ninth and final installment of our blog series on the nine Relationship-Based Competencies, Foundation for Professional Growth. We hope you’ve enjoyed the series and learned a little bit too! (Click here to read all our blogs in the series ») Maintain Professionalism Professional growth is something that everyone should work towards continuously…

We received the following letter after an ERSEA training from Sha’Ketta Davis, Assistant Director, ERSEA Coordinator, & Compliance Officer for the Delta Health Alliance. Thank you Ms. Davis for the kind words! We appreciate you choosing The Gravely Group. “On Monday, September 10, 2018, Mr. Gravely conducted an ERSEA training in Indianola, MS for the…