Introduction
Research Questions
- How did staff composition change after a conversion?
- How did Early Head Start staff qualifications and competencies change after a conversion?
- What approaches did grant recipients plan for to ensure that their Early Head Start staff had the appropriate qualifications and competencies after a conversion, and what challenges did they anticipate?
Head Start programs serve children (from birth to age 5) and pregnant women from families with low incomes and offer early learning, nutritional, health, social, and family well-being services. Depending on shifting community need, grant recipients can request to convert enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start; that is, they can submit applications to the Office of Head Start to shift funding from services for Head Start preschool-age children to Early Head Start services for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers. Converting slots requires ensuring qualified staff are in place to provide high-quality services to pregnant women, infants, and toddlers in accordance with the Head Start Program Performance Standards staff qualification and competency requirements.
Grant recipients that convert enrollment slots have a variety of options for ensuring new staff have the qualifications and competencies necessary to deliver high-quality services to Early Head Start children and families. For example, they may hire new staff who either already have the appropriate qualifications and competencies to deliver Early Head Start or who need additional training. Alternatively, they may also choose to shift existing Head Start staff into Early Head Start, including those who already have the appropriate qualifications and competencies to deliver Early Head Start or those who need additional training. In each of these scenarios, grant recipients must anticipate several potential challenges, including the time and potential costliness of the recruitment and hiring process or the need to invest in staff training to ensure staff can attain the qualifications and competencies necessary to deliver high-quality Early Head Start services. In this brief, we examine how the staff qualifications and competencies of grant recipients that converted enrollment slots changed after a conversion. We also offer a summary of grant recipients’ approaches to ensure staff have the appropriate qualifications and competencies after conversion and their anticipated staffing challenges.
Purpose
This brief describes the staff qualifications of grant recipients that converted enrollment slots before and after their conversion and presents a summary of strategies grant recipients planned to employ to ensure staff had the appropriate qualifications and competencies needed to serve Early Head Start children and families.
Key Findings and Highlights
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In both the 2018 and 2020 cohorts, the number of Early Head Start classroom teachers increased in the year after the conversion. In the 2020 cohort, the number of Head Start classroom teachers decreased in the year after the conversion.
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In both the 2018 and 2020 cohorts, the majority of Early Head Start teachers appear to have met or exceeded the basic CDA credential in a relevant field requirement. Also, across both cohorts, the share of Early Head Start teachers with bachelor’s degrees increased the year after grant recipients converted enrollment slots compared with the year before converting enrollment slots.
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In the 2018 cohort, the share of Early Head Start teachers that had no qualifications but were enrolled in a program to attain a CDA credential or higher degree increased in the year after a conversion, compared with the year before.
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Nearly all of the grant recipients reported plans to offer postconversion roles to existing staff before posting for external hires. Still, 70 percent of grant recipients across both cohorts noted the need to hire new staff because of the conversion.
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About a quarter of grant recipients anticipated staffing challenges after the conversion.
Methods
This brief used data from the Head Start Enterprise System (HSES) and 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 national Program Information Report (PIR) data. We used data from HSES to identify all requests to convert enrollment slots approved by the regional office during fiscal years 2018 and 2020 for grant recipients in Regions 1—10. To examine changes in staff qualifications and competencies, we analyzed PIR data from the years before and after the conversion application was approved for each cohort (i.e., 2017 and 2019 PIR data for the 2018 cohort and 2019 and 2021 PIR data for the 2020 cohort). We compared grant recipient staff numbers as well as Early Head Start center-based teacher and home visitor qualifications and competencies in the years before and the year after conversion. We also analyzed each grant recipient’s conversion application and coded for key themes of anticipated hiring challenges and approaches to support staff in meeting required qualifications and competencies.
We performed descriptive statistical analysis and paired sample t-tests to compare PIR data in the years before and after a conversion for grant recipients that converted enrollment slots in either 2018 or 2020.
Citation
Kuhns, Catherine, Diane Schilder, Shannon Gedo. 2023. “Qualifications and Competencies of Staff in Head Start Programs That Are Converting Enrollment Slots to Early Head Start.” OPRE Report #2023-234. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services.