Head Start Announces Increase in Staff Compensation

Just a few days ago, the Office of Head Start (OHS) announced some long-awaited updates to the Head Start Program Performance Standards. There are a variety of changes, all designed to improve different aspects of program performance. There are improvements to mental health supports, child health and safety, and family engagement. We’ll talk about all of those changes over the next few months. However, for this blog, we’ll review the one change that seems to have everyone talking throughout the Head Start universe: Staff compensation.

For the first time (at least that I can recall), Head Start is making it mandatory for grant recipients to increase staff wages across the board. The Office of Head Start has certainly recommended increases in compensation before, but this is the first time I’ve seen it enshrined as a requirement in the Performance Standards. OHS says these changes were necessary to continue to provide quality programming by shoring up the Head Start workforce and reducing turnover. They hope to accomplish this by bringing wages in line with the rest of the early childhood education sector.

“The updated Performance Standards will enable dedicated Head Start staff to build sustainable careers around the challenging, yet rewarding, jobs of supporting the children and families who need them,” they write in their overview of the changes. “Programs will be able to hire and retain qualified and experienced staff, reversing trends of high turnover in Head Start programs across the nation.”

Head Start has had somewhat of a reputation for paying low wages compared to other similarly-trained professionals in the past. One individual commented on one of our blogs from 2022 about their own experience in Head Start versus another preschool.

“I’m a head start teacher and we only making 13.98,” the commenter wrote. “I also work in a preschool in the afternoon and I’m making 19.00… head starte (sic) need to pay more.”

So why now? Why would Head Start announce this increase after so many years? Well, if you ask me, it was all because of the pandemic. It was the pandemic and its aftermath that was finally able to shine a bright light on the importance of care work in the United States. Schools shuttered. Teachers retired, left the profession, or couldn’t find care for their own children. In 2020, sensing the urgency, then-candidate Joe Biden released his “Caregiving” policy proposal, which made it clear that something needed to be done to increase access to early childhood education. While there were strong policy positions made in that proposal, one astute commenter noticed how I didn’t mention an increase in staff compensation for the ECE workforce.

“I sure hope the compensation for early childhood educators is elevated,” the commenter wrote. “We know how important the first five years of a child’s life are and how important our role as educators is for these children. Unfortunately, all we ever get is lip service. We are not compensated appropriately. We are paid poverty wages.”

A little over two years later, in February 2023, the federal government responded, announcing a variety of initiatives and funding increases designed to shore up the early childhood education workforce. Head Start, for its part, received a $960 million increase in annual funding. While that new funding wasn’t earmarked for staff compensation, Head Start was clear that an increase in wages was on the horizon.

The following November, OHS released its initial proposal of all the changes it wanted to make to the performance standards, including those regarding staff compensation. It sought public comments for months. 1300 public comments were submitted. And just a few days ago, the final rule was released.

So what does it say? Here are some highlights:

• Wage increases apply to all staff, not just teachers.
• For teachers, wages must be at least the same as preschool teachers in public school settings, or 90% of kindergarten teacher salaries.
• For all positions, wages and must be sufficient to meet basic cost of living in the local area.
• Programs have until 2031 to comply.
• Programs under 200 funded slots are exempt.
• Programs must provide or facilitate access to health care coverage for both full-time and part-time employees.
• Programs must offer paid leave to full-time employees.

As you can imagine, posts on Head Start’s Facebook page regarding these changes have had lots of people chiming in.

For some, they were disappointed in the length of time that grantees had to comply.

“These changes would be a whole lot better if they took effect immediately,” one user wrote.

“[S]taff is struggling now and cannot wait that long,” another replied.

While others were skeptical that it will even happen because the mandate isn’t attached to additional funding.

“Will y’all sit down with these UNFUNDED mandates?!! With no money, these are just rules made to be broken,” one user commented.

Still, many simply replied with thumbs up, clapping hands, or exclamations of “Great News!” or “Yay!”

This is a big change for Head Start, and we should at least acknowledge that there will likely be additional back and forth until all the details are ironed out. Will Congress allocate additional funding? Will programs need to cut services in order to comply? How will it all shake out? Either way, looks like we have plenty of time to figure it out.

I want to know your thoughts! Leave them in the comments!

Tags: compensation, wages