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Identifying Barriers to Enrollment: Transportation

The Head Start Program Performance Standards (the Performance Standards) require that Head Start programs use data from the community assessment to identify eligible children and families and potential barriers to enrollment and attendance in their service area.

Programs must use this data to inform ongoing program improvement efforts to promote enrolling the children most in need of program services, as described in 45 CFR §1302.102(c). This includes using community assessment data to understand transportation needs and access for children and families most in need. The standards do not require that the Head Start program provide transportation services directly.

It is important to provide equitable, comprehensive services when there is an identified need. As such, recipients must consider whether lack of transportation is a barrier that inhibits recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance.

Tips for Identifying Barriers Through the Community Assessment

Programs can use community assessment data to:

  • Find all age- and income-eligible children within their service area.
  • Identify additional selection criteria such as:
    • Experiencing homelessness
    • Being in foster care
    • Extreme poverty
    • Involvement in the child welfare program
    • Teen pregnancy
    • Having an Individualized Family Service Plan or Individualized Education Program
    • Substandard housing
    • Incarcerated parent
    • Other issues specific to the community
  • Determine whether families with high selection criteria scores are recruited and whether such families actually enroll and attend.

Transportation Improvement Options

When transportation is a barrier, recipients must use this data to inform program improvement options. If possible, programs must provide or facilitate transportation for a child if needed. 

Solutions for obtaining Head Start transportation services may include:

  • Partnering with local transit agencies to relocate stops so they are closer to both Head Start centers and eligible family address clusters.
  • Directly providing transportation through program-owned vehicles and Head Start transportation staff.
    • Programs may request one-time funds to purchase vehicles, purchase them with loans, or lease vehicles.
    • Programs can employ parents and community members as bus monitors and support monitors acquiring their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) so they can substitute for absent drivers and eventually move into driver roles. This both creates a career path and a pool of qualified drivers.
  • Contracting with a company that can provide Head Start transportation services.
  • Partnering or contracting with a local school district. If a school district does not have the capacity or resources to include Head Start children on its routes, perhaps the program can offer to provide vehicles and staff so that costs are shared and there is improved economy of scale.
  • Partnering or contracting with local transit companies, including in rural areas, to obtain services.

Regardless of the option selected, programs should make long-term budget plans related to predictable transportation costs. Depending on whether your transportation service is provided directly, in-kind, or via contract, these can include:

  • Vehicle replacement based on predicted useful life
  • Schedule for purchasing and replacing child safety restraint systems if the vehicle is not equipped with integrated child safety seats
  • Insurance
  • Costs for garage or parking
  • Fuel and vehicle maintenance
  • Personnel (drivers and monitors)
  • Contract cost
  • CDL attainment and annual training and related requirements for drivers, including drug testing and background checks

It is not mandatory to provide transportation. However, recipients must ensure that:

  • Selection for the program is not influenced by the ability to provide transportation.
  • Families are provided with detailed information about transportation options that can be used to get to the program and gain access to and participate in services.

Reminder: Responding to potential transportation challenges and barriers to participation for the highest-need families is now a regulatory requirement. Recipients cannot use grant funds to pay for transportation services that do not meet the Performance Standards.

Questions for Consideration

  • If transportation is identified as a need for eligible families, what options are available?
  • If there are no community-based options for transportation, can we identify or plan for funds in our operating budget to provide services directly or contract for service?
  • Should we attempt to partner with a local school district to determine whether they can provide transportation?
  • How will we sustain transportation costs over time?

Summary of New Regulatory Requirements

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has added language in the Performance Standards to ensure transportation needs and resources are part of the data that inform and impact a program’s design and service delivery. Adding this to the community assessment guarantees that programs are aware of resources available to support families and develop partnerships.

ACF recognizes the often-high cost of transportation due to the cost of buses, as well as a lack of available drivers and monitors. As such, ACF is not requiring the provision of transportation by Head Start programs but seeks to support programs in identifying available community partners and resources to mitigate this ongoing challenge.

  • Determining community strengths, needs, and resources, 45 CFR §1302.11(b) requires that data collected through the community assessment include:
    • Any challenges and barriers to participation
    • All service area resources and potential partners, including transportation resources
  • Selection process, 45 CFR §1302.14(d) says programs must use community assessment data to:
    • Identify the population of eligible children and families and potential barriers to enrollment and attendance
    • Understand access to transportation for the highest-need families
    • Inform ongoing program improvement efforts, as described in 45 CFR, to promote enrolling the children most in need of program services (45 CFR §1302.102(c)).
  • Attendance, 45 CFR §1302.16(a) requires that programs examine and address barriers to regular attendance. For example, programs provide or facilitate safe and reliable transportation for the child, if needed and where possible.

Unchanged Regulatory Requirements

The standards at Transportation, 45 CFR §1303 Subpart F — purpose, vehicles, vehicle operations, trip routing, safety procedures, and children with disabilities — remain unchanged. This includes the requirement that programs not offering transportation services must provide reasonable assistance to help families arrange transportation to and from its activities, as well as provide information about these transportation options in recruitment announcements (45 CFR §1303.70(b)).

The Office of Head Start understands that not all programs are able to provide transportation services and will support continued exploration of opportunities to identify partnerships with transit agencies and school districts to support the safe transport of children to Head Start programs.

Transportation Spotlights

The following Head Start-related initiatives highlight opportunities that can be identified through a robust community assessment of local transportation resources and strengthening relationships with transportation agencies.

Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency

The Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency (HIRTA) provides door-to-door public transportation services in seven Iowa counties. The agency began providing Head Start transportation 10 years ago, when the area's public schools initially received program funding. The school system is no longer involved in providing transportation, but HIRTA continued providing it. HIRTA uses dedicated cutaway buses to transport 3–5-year-olds to Head Start programs throughout the area, but their operators drive in other capacities besides the Head Start program. Their Head Start drivers are kind, highly skilled in communicating with their young passengers, and dedicated to ensuring children arrive safely at school and their final destinations. HIRTA transports approximately 27 children per day more than 62 miles to and from homes to their school programs. “We feel that this service gives the children a good start in life, so they’re better prepared to start school,” explained HIRTA Executive Director Julia Castillo.

Memphis Area Transit Authority

Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) has taken the national charge to relocate bus stops near three Head Start centers in their service area. “We’re thrilled to be a part of this innovative initiative that affects the next generation and directly benefits our families and children in Memphis,” says Gary Rosenfeld, MATA CEO. “This collaboration shows public transit has the power to elevate the lives of infants, toddlers, and children of all ages.” “New tools to overlay transit route data with Head Start center location data helps underscore the need for vital mobility options in communities,” says Arthur L. Guzzetti, vice president of policy and mobility, American Public Transportation Association (APTA). “APTA applauds the connections made possible through the Civic Mapping Initiative and commends the leadership of the Memphis Area Transit Authority.”

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