On August 21, 2024, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published a final rule in the Federal Register, Supporting the Head Start Workforce and Consistent Quality Programming. The rule updates the Head Start Program Performance Standards (the Performance Standards) to increase support and stability for the Head Start workforce. The changes also improve the quality of services Head Start programs provide to children and families.

This Program Instruction (PI) notes a few technical updates to ACF-OHS-PI-24-05, which summarizes the final rule and outlines changes to the Performance Standards. These technical updates are minor corrections for typographic errors or omissions that do not substantively change the policies described in the final rule.

First, this PI clarifies that the final rule effective date was incorrectly listed as the date of publication, August 21, 2024. The effective date should have been October 21, 2024, to comply with the 60-day delay required by the Congressional Review Act.

The notification regarding the effective date does not change any of the compliance dates specified in the rule. Grant recipients may still implement new flexibilities starting from the date of publication, August 21, 2024. This includes the provision that allows programs to adjust a family’s gross income to account for excessive housing costs for the purposes of determining eligibility for Head Start services (45 CFR §1302.12(i)(1)(ii)), as well as those related to qualification requirements for mental health consultants (45 CFR §1302.91(e)(8)(ii)) and the annual update to the community assessment (45 CFR §1302.11(b)(5)). Programs were able to start using this flexibility from the beginning of the current 2024–2025 program year and this remains unchanged.

This PI also notes two other technical updates to the regulatory text. The final rule inadvertently included an incorrect citation in the requirements for family partnership services, and left out the August 1, 2028, compliance date for staff benefit requirements. A formal correction for both of these issues was published in the Federal Register on October 31, 2024.

OHS will continue to provide direction, guidance, and resources that support Head Start programs to understand and implement changes to the Performance Standards.

Thank you for the work you do on behalf of children and families.

Sincerely,

/ Khari M. Garvin /

Khari M. Garvin
Director
Office of Head Start