Head Start Official Structure

If you only read one of The Gravely Group’s blogs each year, our annual Year in Review should be it. Each year, we do a recap of all the articles we put out throughout the year, as well as give a few other highlights from our trainings and travels. After nearly three years of uncertainty,…

Last week, we watched a recorded webinar called “Fiscal Management During the COVID-19 Emergency.” The webinar, which first aired on May 22, featured Office of Head Start (OHS) Director, Dr. Deborah Bergeron, explaining the additional funding available through the CARES Act and how that funding will be distributed in the coming months. She opened the…

Over the next couple months, we will be doing a blog series on the nine Head Start Relationship-Based Competencies, focusing on a different competency each week. But before we can dive in on each individual competency, we’d first like to define the overall structure and purpose of the relationship-based competencies, and why they’re important for…

2016 was another roller coaster year for Head Start programs. In November, the finalized changes to the Head Start Performance Standards took effect. Many changes have a schedule of implementation, with the most impactful change – providing full school days to 100% of slots – expected to be in place by 2021. There were also…

You may ask what the benefits are of familiarizing Staff and Policy Council with the Head Start Act 2007 and the Program Governance. First, the Performance Standards was published in 1974 and revised in 1996 and again in 2015, with the most recent proposed changes scheduled to take effect in school year 2017.  The Performance…

A system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole. In the second part of our two-part blog, What are the 10 Head Start Management Systems and Why Do They Matter?, we want to connect the quality of the 10 management systems to the quality of Head Start programs as a…

On the National Head Start Association website, there is a somewhat hidden presentation titled “Leading Head Start through a Management Systems Lens.” This presentation, given during the Head Start Manager and Director Academy in June 2012,  outlines the 10 key Head Start management systems and aims to 1. Make managers aware of the systems and…

At the Gravely Group, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the non-federal share requirements for Head Start agencies. On the federal Head Start website, it states: The Head Start Act stipulates that the Federal share of the total costs of the Head Start program will not exceed 80 percent of the total grantee…

At some time or another, a Head Start program may decide that the problem they’re facing needs the expertise and advice of an outside consultant. Consultants play an important part of any successful Head Start program and can help bring lasting change and quality improvements to a program. The Strategic Use of Consultants Guide was…

“The Board of Directors bears the primary responsibility for your organization to fulfill its obligations to the law, its donors, its staff and volunteers, its clients, and the public at large.” – Principle for Good Governance and Ethical Practice. The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, October 2007. “There is great difference between sitting on a…