Tools for Creating High-quality Change in Scope Applications

Tools for Creating High-quality Change in Scope Applications

Glenna Davis: Hello! And welcome everyone to the Tools for Creating High-Quality Change in Scope Applications webcast. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Heather Wanderski. Heather, the floor is yours.

Heather Wanderski: Great! Thank you, Glenna. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome. Today we are really excited to share two new tools that the Office of Head Start created to help programs develop high-quality and complete Change in Scope applications. I want to make clear that the use of these tools is completely optional, but we believe that using them in conjunction with other support, such as the Information Memorandum on Enrollment Reductions and Conversions, as well as that accompanying appendix, and your planning conversations with your program specialist, all of those pieces together will really help programs to create and submit strong applications, which we are hoping, in turn, can really help expedite the approval process. 

We know that people are [Inaudible]. For this webinar, what we're going to do is, we're going to drop them in the Chat periodically for your immediate use. But please note that these resources are not 50A compliant, which is why they are not posted to the ECLKC website. However, they will be made available shortly thereafter, and anyone who is able to see this webcast will then also have available for the same tools at the same time. But before we dive into the tools, I want to now introduce the speakers that we have with us here today. 

My name is Heather Wanderski. I am the program operations division director for the Office of Head Start. I've been with Head Start for about several years in various roles, but my primary role right now is in supporting regional offices with operational issues, such as Change in Scope requests. Also joining me today is the Office of Head Start director, Khari Garvin. In his tenure with the Office of Head Start, Khari has focused on many priorities, including the Change in Scope process, and we're really excited to hear from him today. 

We're also going to be joined by Larissa Zoot, who is a program operations manager with the Office of Head Start, and she brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience with reviewing and analyzing Change in Scope requests. Let's take a look at our agenda and what we have planned for our time together. Here's our agenda that we have up for discussion today. In a moment, we're going to hear from Director Garvin. Following that, we'll have a quick refresher on what the Change in Scope process is, what that recourse looks like, and that will really help lay the foundation for our discussion on the two new tools that we are hoping will help our programs in the development of the application process and the request. 

The first is going to be a checklist that details all the required documents and elements that need to be included in your request for a Change in Scope. The second tool is a budget template that guides programs in providing key budgetary information. And then at the end, we will share some existing resources that relate to Change in Scope requests other than just these two new tools. If time permits, we'll be able to address any questions that may come into the Q and A that we think may need additional clarification while we have you here today. And with that, it is my pleasure now to turn things over to Director Garvin. Khari?

Khari Garvin: Hi, Heather. Thank you so much, Head Start family, hello, and welcome. Thank you so much for joining today's webinar. Thanks also for taking time out of your busy schedules to learn just a little bit more about two new tools that we created to help grant recipients with developing strong Change in Scope requests for the Office of Head Start to consider for approval. Now, as Heather said, during my tenure as director of the Office of Head Start, one of the areas that I had paid special attention to is the Change in Scope application process. 

And because we have many grant recipients that have been planning for programmatic changes to best serve their local communities, it was important to me to gain more insight into the very process that supports grant recipients' ability to achieve that goal. Now I have done a lot of probing, listening to both grant recipients and my colleagues here at the Office of Head Start about what works well and what has been a challenge in the current Change in Scope process. One of the challenges that I've heard about consistently from everyone is, that once a Change in Scope request is submitted, the process is often delayed due to the extensive back-and-forth conversations that often occur between grant recipients and OHS staff to either clarify parts of an application or to complete information that's missing from an application. 

In both cases, the clarity is needed to move the approval process forward. I have learned that this can take days, and sometimes weeks, often delaying the final approval and negatively impacting the planned implementation date. In response to this challenge, the Office of Head Start created two new optional tools for grant recipients that were designed with three goals in mind; one, to support quality applications that are responsive to community needs, and develop with measure more short and long-term goals, designed to maintain a sustainable, high-quality program. Two, reduce the burden caused by that ongoing back-and-forth communication that I talked about regarding incomplete application submissions, and three, reduce delays and support the timely processing of the Change in Scope application. 

I know that everyone is very busy. We hope that these tools will help you develop and submit Change in Scope applications that are complete, as well as high-quality. But we also expect that these tools will help the Office of Head Start to deliver that level and quality of customer service that we desire, by shortening the time required for revisions and clarifications to applications, thereby reducing the timetable for approvals. I'm going to turn it over to Larissa Zoot to unveil the tools. And again, thank you so much for being here today. So long!

Larissa Zoot: Thank you, Khari. Before we take a look at the tools; we're going to take just a few minutes to familiarize ourselves with the Change in Scope process. A Change in Scope request focuses on enrollment reductions, as well as requests to convert slots from Head Start to Early Head Start. There are two distinct sections of the Head Start act, to cover OHS' authority to improve Change in Scope requests. We have included links to both of those sections, [Inaudible] Change in Scope request can be submitted through the Head Start Enterprise system at any time, either as part of a non-competing new or a non-competing continuation application, or it can be submitted through a separate post-award amendment. As far as the timing of submission, a request should be submitted at a minimum of 90 days prior to the planned implementation date. However, we are currently averaging about 120 days for processing. Some requests take a little longer to review and approve, some take less than that amount of time. Timing primarily depends on the completeness and quality of an application when it is submitted.

Programs are strongly encouraged to work closely with their regional office throughout the planning and development of the request. Regional offices will direct programs to two resources that exist for Change in Scope requests. The first, on the left of the screen, is the Information Memorandum for enrollment reductions and conversions, and the conversions of Head Start slots to Early Head Start slots. This IM highlights important considerations and information that should be addressed as part of the request. The second resource is the appendix to that IM, which is called Enrollment Reduction and Conversion Considerations. This supplemental document outlines critical questions and data to consider as part of the planning and development for both enrollment reduction and conversion requests. 

OHS used these two resources, as well as the expertise of regional office staff to develop the two tools that we'll be discussing with you in further detail today. Without further ado, we're going to dive right into the Change in Scope application checklist tool. The Checklist has three parts, and we'll be taking a closer look at each one over the next few slides. Part one of the Checklist is titled, Required Documents to Include in the Request. This section outlines all the documents that must be included in the request, and key considerations for each of those documents. As you can see on your screen, the Checklist contains three columns. The first column lists the document or element that's required in the Change in Scope request. The middle column provides the user with items they should consider when submitting each document.

Using the 424 and 424A as an example, here we offer that if the request is for enrollment reduction, these documents should display the next changes for Head Start or Early Head Start. In that same section, you'll notice that we highlight Language, labeled as a tip. Throughout the entire checklist, you'll see tips listed under several different considerations. We hope that these tips will provide extra support for the considerations under which they are listed. The tip we listed for the 424 and 424A for enrollment reduction requests that the SF-424A should reflect a net change of zero, unless you're requesting funding for one time, or startup costs exceeding the authorized budget. By offering these tips, we hope to reduce the number of times OHS has to reach back out to programs to request edits to these documents. 

Unfortunately, we don't have enough time today to read through all of the information on screen, but as you can see here, the checklist includes several other considerations for all the other required documents needed for a Change in Scope request. To include the program narrative, the budget narrative, the proposed schedule for program, and the approvals from the governing board or tribal council, and policy council. This is the last section of Part 1. Here we include examples of documents that may support the justification and data analysis included in the request. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather the documents that we most commonly see submitted. One important thing to mention here is, we only need to see the part of the document that is relevant to the request. If the entire document is not relevant to the request, we ask that you please not submit it in its entirety. For example, we don't need to see the entire Wage Comparability study, we rather would like to see the parts that support the data analysis specifically included in the request.

Part 2 details all of the elements that must be addressed throughout the Change in Scope request. Listed on this slide is the first element, which is overall justification. Here we ask for some key information about the request, including data on current and proposed enrollment by program, option, and location. We also ask the program to describe the strategic plan for the request, and describe how families will be supported, and how displacement will be prevented.

The second element is the Community Assessment, which is reviewed and dated annually. In response to these considerations listed here, the Change in Scope request should adequately demonstrate the program's response to community need. Where possible, data from your Community Assessment should be used within each of the considerations to demonstration strong justification for the community need of your proposed services.

The third element is Equity. Here, we're looking for programs to describe how they consider equity throughout their request. Specifically, we're looking for whether the proposed program design will improve or exacerbate existing disparities within and across your communities, and what safeguards programs will be implementing to prevent disproportionate slot loss for certain populations. This slide here lists two more elements, the Self-Assessment, and the Wage Comparability study. For Element 4, Self-Assessment, we ask that the program summarize the evaluation of the most recent Self-Assessment results. We ask that you please not provide the entire Self-Assessment, but rather provide an analysis of the annual results that justify this request and describe how your systems will support this request. 

For Element 5, Wage Comparability, OHS is looking for a few key components. First, we want to see an analysis on key issues impacting staff, such as staff turnover, retention, and education. We also want to see wage comparability data that demonstrates fair compensation rates based on comparable services in the program service area, not the entire state, including salaries for early childhood education and elementary school staff — we are looking for both of those. Finally, we want to ensure that proposed wage increases will be adequate to support the desired outcome of programs being fully staffed and are able to provide quality services in quality environments to meet their full-funded enrollment. 

The 6th element is the Service Delivery Model. Here, we ask programs to discuss changes in slots by program option, location, and service duration. We also want to see an updated program schedule to reflect the proposed changes, and a description of how the program will meet service duration requirements. Woven throughout the responses to this section should be justification on how the proposed Service Delivery Model is responsive to the needs of children and families.

Next, we have the Administrative and Supervisory Structure. The considerations here focus on how the current organization structure will change relative to the scope of the request, and whether there are any costs that can be reduced. The program should provide a justification on the reasonableness of the proposed Administrative and Supervisory Structure, proportional to the regional, to the reduction or the conversion of slots.

The final two elements are Staffing and Training, and the Implementation Timelines. For Staffing and Training, the request must include a strong description of the changes to staffing ratios, and any related updates to the coaching and training plans, given the proposed changes. For implementation timeline, the checklist outlines considerations around the proposed timeline, including any difference between the budgetary and service implementation dates, as well as explaining the backup plan if there's a delay in implementation. The last part of Part 2 is additional elements for conversation requests. 

If the program's request does not include a request for conversion of slots, you can skip this section and move on to Part 3. Some of the considerations listed in this section involve staffing, training, and qualifications for Early Head Start teachers, licensing requirements, planning and implementation for tools and curriculum specific to EHS services, and also a few other questions pertaining to Early Head Start services. In addition to using these considerations, programs should also make sure they're consistent with all of the items outlined in determining program structure, which is found at 45 CFR 1302.20C3 of the Head Start program Performance Standards.

And finally, we arrive at Part 3 of the Checklist, which outlines several budget considerations and requirements. For both enrollment reduction and/or conversion, the Change in Scope request needs to describe the savings and reinvestment for each category. For conversion requests, the program must describe the Head Start cost savings and the Early Head Start reinvestment for each object class category. We're also looking for a description of whether there are on-time or startup costs, and how the program intends to pay for those. This is a good segue to turn the mic over to Heather, who is going to introduce the second tool we prepared, which is the Budget Tool.

Heather: Great, thanks, Larissa. I now get the opportunity to finally share a new Budget Tool that we created that will hopefully help model how your narratives should be developed for Change in Scope requests. And I think what we tried to do with both of these tools is, make sure that the Budget Tool was complementary of Part 3 of that Checklist that Larissa just covered in that third section. But before I dive into the tool, I want to make sure to express that for the purposes of evaluating a Change in Scope application — I'm going to blow your mind here — we are not looking for your annual budget. 

We often receive programs; they love to send us in the current annual budget compared to the proposed annual budget and the annual changes that are made in each category. But that doesn't really help the Office of Head Start with evaluating a Change in Scope application. What we're looking for is the portion of the budget that is specifically impacted based on the programmatic changes proposed. For example, if my annual budget is $20 million, but I'm only reducing six classrooms to increase teacher wages, then I only want to see the cost savings associated with closing those six classrooms, and then subsequently increasing teacher wages. 

The Budget Tool, which I believe Brian has now shared with folks who have now joined us for this webinar in the Chat — it's an Excel document. Within the tool, there are four tabs, and you can see them on the bottom of the screen shot here. The first tab is titled the Budget Summary, and then the next two tabs are specific to the budget changes for both Head Start and Early Head Start. And then finally, the last tab is really meant to be the instructions tab for use of the document itself.

For the Budget Summary pictured here, programs should only have to fill out the cells that are highlighted in gray, and we included red arrows next to these cells on the screen. The rest of the summary will populate from the figures entered in the subsequent budget changes tabs. At the bottom of the Summary page, there's a box that calculates the total savings reinvestment. It's pictured here on the bottom right-hand side of the screen. The totals in both columns should match if all the grant funds are being reinvested back into the program. If there are one-time or startup costs associated with the requests, then the value and the total reinvestment would be greater, because it would be an indication that you're asking for additional funds, and startup funds.

For Tabs 2 and 3, Head Start budget changes and Early Head Start budget changes, the program should complete the application tabs which mirror the budget detail headings and columns in the Head Start Enterprise system. If requesting a conversion or a transfer of funds from Head Start to Early Head Start, then both tabs should really be completed in the tool. In the column titled Operations Funds, and in parentheses we have Savings from proposed cuts, the program should enter the total funds across budget line items from the proposed reductions. The next column, which is Budget Narrative — that's where the program can make note to provide detail and information to explain the savings from those proposed cuts. For example, the number of full-time employees, savings in rent, transportation — all those other different factors. And then in the next column, there is what we call the Operations Funds, and in parentheses we have Reinvestment. 

The program can show here where the funds are proposed for reinvestment. If the savings from the reduction of personnel will be reinvested in personnel for an increase in wages, then the amounts will be reflected here and explained how those funds would then be reinvested. For example, if I'm increasing the personnel line item, I would provide detail and information, such as increases in hourly amounts, grade scale, new position salary, and any other pertinent information. If I'm requesting a conversion from Head Start to Early Head Start, then you may need to request a change to Training and Technical Assistance funds, using those last two columns. You'd see a reduction in Head Start, and then a subsequent reinvestment in the Early Head Start tab.

After completing the Budget tab, refer to the Budget Summary to see those updates reflected in the Summary tab to verify the accuracy. One additional thing to note is, if the costs are allocated across multiple grants, you're going to want to make sure to note how that impacts the cost savings and reinvestment in those Budget Narrative columns. For instance, if I have, let's see, a management employee who is covered across multiple grants, but they make $60,000 a year, I may only show $25,000 for that individual being reduced in this particular grant. But that may not be reflective of the full salary that is paid across multiple grants. Be sure to kind of reflect that. It's helpful to explain that in the narrative.

In order to demonstrate this, we have created a scenario Change in Scope request to use as the basis for a live demonstration in the Budget Tool. This request includes both an enrollment reduction and conversion, and the purpose of this actual request is, they're looking to — or this program is looking to improve staff salaries and fringe benefits and to retain qualified staff, but they're also asking for a conversion to best response in community need as well. You’ll see here in this scenario, you can make note of this — and we'll talk through this as I do the live demo -- in this request, you see we're reducing 43 Head Start slots across three classrooms at Center 1, so that's the first part. And then the second part is that we are converting 107 Head Start slots across 7 classrooms into Center 2, into 24 Early Head Start slots across 3 classrooms at Center 2. So now, what I want to do is, I want to use this scenario to actually show you a live demo of the Budget Tool where funds will be saved, and how they will be repurposed.

Now you guys have here, live on the screen, we have the Excel document pulled up here, and it's automatically pulled up to the Budget Summary tab. What I want to do is, I'm going to show you here, I want to fill in, as I made note, the only sections that we really need to fill in on the Budget Tool is the sections highlighted in gray. For simplification purposes and for this demonstration, I only want to really show you the chart in the total funding, because ultimately this is going to — -- because I'm doing a Head Start to Early Head Start conversion part of it — is going to be able to demonstrate to you the change that is being made in Head Start Training and Technical Assistance dollars, as well as Early Head Start. Since we gave you the earlier scenario of $20 million, I'm going to go ahead and start here and say that my Head Start program is $20 million — oh, that's two, so we will get one more zero in there — see, it's a live demonstration. 

Then for Training and Technical Assistance funds, let's say right now, I receive $300,000 to support Head Start with Training and Technical Assistance. For Early Head Start, it will be very simple again -- we're just going to stick with the whole round numbers here — I'm going to say we are currently receiving $3 million in Early Head Start, and then for Early Head Start Training and Technical Assistance to Others, I'm going to go ahead and plug in that I have $75,000 that I received for Early Head Start Training and Technical Assistance. You see here, my total funding across my program right now is $23,375,000. Now again, for the purposes of this, I'm not going to fill in the name and all the enrollment, and all those things; you guys can do that later on. But now, what I want to do is, using that scenario we created, we're going to fill out the relevant areas in the Budget Tool to show the cost savings and the reallocation of funds based on that scenario.

In the first part of that scenario, what I said I was going to do is, we're going to close three classrooms in Center 1, serving 43 preschoolers. Obviously, the first thing I want to think about when I'm thinking about cost savings i, positions, my teachers, my personnel. Those are the things that automatically come to mind. The first thing I want to do is, in that scenario, like I said, closing three classrooms, so that will be an automatic savings of three teachers. And let's just say I am paying them $32,000 on average a year. Let's just say three teachers at $32,000, that would bring cost savings of $96,000 in my teachers. Then for those same three classrooms, I would have three assistants, and let's say I pay them $28,000. I'm going to go ahead and put in $28,000 for three of them, and that would equal $84,000. So, pretty simple, adds up very quickly.

Now I also have to account for their personnel and fringe benefits. Let's go down here and we'll look at the Fringe Benefits section. For Social Security, FICA, all that, for those three positions, let's say I am paying $24,000. For health and dental and life insurance, we can plug in $32,000. Retirement is $7,000, and Other Fringe, we do not have any. You see here, my total fringe savings for those total six personnel come to $63,000. And because I'm closing three classrooms, I will have some supplies because I budget on classroom basis for those supplies. 

I'm going to be saving $10,000 for those three classrooms. There we go, we've got $10,000. Last thing I have is rent in this scenario. I am going to save a little bit of rent in this situation, and I know that that is down in the Other Object Class category, you see here, again, very much mirroring all of the categories that our program should automatically be familiar with because of the budget detail that is in your application. You see here, for the rent, I'm also going to be saving $12,000 for rent at Center 1 — perfect. In total, it looks like I am saving a total of $265,000 from the first part of that scenario.

Now as you recall, there was a second part of that scenario, which would ultimately result in additional cost savings. In that second part of the scenario, I'm converting 107 Head Start slots in 7 classrooms to 24 Early Head Start slots in 3 classrooms — but this time it's going to be at Center 2 instead of Center 1. I'm going to have to have some additional cost savings from closing 7 more classrooms in Head Start, that serve 107 preschoolers. Now I'm going to go back up to personnel because now I'm talking about more than just three teachers: I'm now talking about 7 more. I need to be reducing 7 more teachers at $32,000. Instead of 3 teachers, I'm now cutting 10. It's 7 plus the 3 original from the first scenario. At $32,000, that now comes to $320,000 that I am saving from those cuts in those 10 classrooms now. 

You could also, if you were so interested, you could keep the original three teachers, and I'll actually show it to you on this next line — instead of doing three assistant teachers at $20,000 from Center 1, you could also do 3 assistants at $28,000 from Center, actually, we're going to change that, it's actually 7 from Center 2. And in that case, my total is actually going to jump up to $280,000, OK? You can see there, there's different ways that you can play with the budget detail and the narrative, so you can provide additional detail if you want to get down to that level of specificity when we're talking, and you can see there the two different types, but ultimately I come to the same situation where I could either show you by Center, or I can show you the individual details there.

Now I got here my 10 teachers, my 10 assistants accounted for in my cost savings. Now I'm going to jump down to, again, fringe for the second scenario. Remember, we entered fringe in for the first, we're going to bump a little of this up, because we have some cost savings for these additional seven staff as well. For Social Security, I'm going to add an additional $56,000 in savings for a total of $80,000 in Social Security. For health, disability, and life insurance, I'm increasing that by $73,000. My overall is going to be $105,000. For retirement, I'm adding an additional $18,000, 18 plus 7 is going to be $25,000, and no other additional cost savings and fringe.

Now I have, again, some additional supplies, because we're talking about 7 additional classrooms that I'm closing. We have 3 classrooms and supplies from Center 1, and we have 7 classrooms from Center 2. And in that case, I am now adding the 2 together, I'm going to save an additional $18,000. My overall savings is now going to be $28,000. Now we're going to save rent from Center 2 in addition to Center 1, so rent at Center 1 is $12,000. I'm going to save rent at Center 2, and I'm going to save actually $60,000. This actually will change to $72,000 that I am saving in total rent from both of those.

Now, between both scenarios, I saved from — like I said, both scenarios, it's all still part of the same Change in Scope request, I just have cost savings from both different types of changes that I'm making within my program. Finally, because I will be converting some slots from Head Start to Early Head Start, I will also need to move some T and TA funds. I'll be savings a little bit in Training and Technical Assistance dollars. you see here in the other category, we have training and staff development. What I want to do is make sure that I capture that, in the far right-hand columns where we talk about Training and Technical Assistance, so savings from those proposed cuts. I anticipate that I will save $7,000 in Head Start from the reduction of the staff, and the children and families that will no longer be served once I close those 10 classrooms. $7,000 is accounted for there.

In Head Start, remember we plan to use a portion of those funds to increase staff salaries for all of our remaining teaching staff. I'm still in the Head Start tab; I was only looking at this point to make adjustments, or describe my cost savings from the proposed cuts.  Now since I'm going to be keeping a portion of my savings in Head Start, what I need to do is be able to explain that reinvestment on the reinvestment side; how much money am I going to be keeping in Head Start, what is that going to look like? The first thing I want to do is provide salary increases for all of the teachers that are remaining in my program. I'm going to move over here to these reinvestment columns. 

The first is, I'm going to give increases, salary increases for all remaining teachers, and it will cost, based on my wage comparability study, it's going to cost $80,000. Teacher Increases — and I know in our PowerPoint, we were talking about filling this out earlier, we talked about a lot of details, and a lot of things that you would want to make sure are included in your description. And by all means, please do that. For the purposes in trying to simplify this demonstration, I'm only merely putting in the bare basics of what needs to be included, just to kind of give you a sample of the demo tool. For teacher aides, I'm also going to increase their compensation, and that's going to cost me another $70,000 in order to give those increases. Assistant increases based on wage comp study. 

Now I'm going to move, then, because obviously any wage increases will also impact the amount of fringe benefits that I am responsible to pay out for, for those employees. Understanding that, I'm going to move down to Fringe Benefits, and you'll see here, it's going to cost me an additional $20,000 for Social Security. For Health, Dental and Life Insurance, I'm looking at another $27,000. For Retirement, it's going to increase by $6,000. And remember, I was talking about specifically in addition to increasing staff salaries for teaching staff, we also want to have an opportunity to offer retention and hiring bonuses, as well as child care. What I'm going to do is, I'm going to capture that here in my Other Fringe Benefits. Those additional hiring bonuses and that additional support with child care is actually going to cost $62,000. 

In total, I am keeping $265,000 in my Head Start program. But you'll see here, in total, down here on the far right-hand side, I'm still showing a negative $645,000 in Head Start, as well as a negative $7,000. But remember, we had talked about that we're going to be reinvesting some of the cost savings from the Head Start program into Early Head Start. What I want to do is, I want to move over to the Early Head Start Budget Changes tab. And remember, we're not cutting anything from the Early Head Start program, so we don't need to focus in on savings from proposed cuts. We're going to dismiss the first two columns that you see here, and we're going to move further into our spreadsheets here. Now you can see what I really want to focus our efforts in on is the Operations Funds and the Budget Narrative — that reinvestment part, because what I was planning to do in that second scenario is open three Early Head Start classrooms to support those new Early Head Start infants and toddlers.

As part of that process, I am going to actually need three classrooms.  I need a minimum of six teachers. And in this scenario, I also want to include one permanent substitute, as well as increase wages for all of my teachers. I am going to hire six teachers and one substitute. And so that, in total, is going to cost $440,000. Now because I'm adding on seven staff, I'm going to also need to move down to the Fringe Benefits and make sure I account for savings for the fringe benefits for those positions. In Social Security, that'll be $59,000, for Health, Dental and Life Insurance, we're looking at $77,000.  For retirement, it will be $18,000, and we will not have anything in the Other Fringe category.

Because I'm adding three new classrooms, I also need to make sure that I have the sufficient supplies for those, so I am going to add three classrooms, so supplies for three classrooms at $8,000 a classroom, which, of course, for many may seem high, but obviously not for infants and toddlers, because we know it does take a lot to fund their diapers, wipes and formula.  Then I am going to also need to account for the rent at Center 2. And in this case, the rent is going to cost $27,000. I should have 645,000. Now remember, because I'm adding additional infants and toddlers to expand my Early Head Start program, I also need to make sure that I account for the increased cost for training and staff development. I'm going to move over to my T and TA, and I'm going to reinvest that $7,000 for that EHS staff training. Now you'll see here that we have accounted for the $645,000 and the $7,000 in T and TA funds.

What I want to show you, as I was talking through before we went to the demo, is now, what this will show you on the Budget Summary, and I will try to zoom in here just a little bit more so you guys can see — what this has done now is, that budget detail now has given you the slice of your $20 million grant, but focusing solely in on the parts that are related to the Change in Scope request itself. You'll see here that I am saving in my Head Start program $910,000. Now it's saving, but really, I'm reinvesting that same funding back into Head Start, and into Early Head Start. You see a portion, $265,000, is being reinvested back into Head Start. 

And if I scroll down here, the remaining of that $910,000, is 645, is going into Early Head Start as the reinvestment. And you'll see down here, as your third and final check, that the two numbers reconcile with each other, so that you know that the total savings from the proposed cuts in your Head Start program are equal to the total amount of reinvestment back into your program. And then remember, we talked about the Training and Technical Assistance dollars, so you'll see here that I had my pre-conversion reduction budget that I entered in myself. You'll see here now that my Head Start base funding has actually decreased, remember, because we're moving a portion of that into Early Head Start. 

You see that Early Head Start actually increased to $645,000. Same thing with Training and Technical Assistance dollars, you'll see here that the Head Start Training and Technical Assistance dollars actually decreased, but Early Head Start increased, but that our same funding, our same funding, our same total funding, both pre-conversion reduction and post-conversion reduction, are the same. So again, another great check and balance with this tool, because you didn't enter in those numbers, but what you're doing is, your detail fed into that, and it's a great way to be able to see that everything lines up exactly the way it needs to for folks to be able to analyze your application. So very excited, and I'm hoping, again, that you have the opportunity to use the tool, that you can get a little bit from it, and this presentation.

I'm going to stop sharing there, and I think we're going to move back into a couple more slides that I want to make sure that we have the opportunity to cover. As we talked about early on, I want to make sure that we had an opportunity to elevate to you some additional resources that are available on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center website, or what we call our ECLKC. The first two resources listed under the Enrollment Reduction and Conversation section were discussed early in the presentation; Larissa covered those. They're both very much fundamental to this process. That's the Information Memorandum as well as the associated appendix. We also list quite a few resources around workforce and recruitment, as well as resources that cover topics related to fair and just treatment — that is for all children, families, and those folks in our staff who support them. 

But this, I want to make sure to note, that this is not an exhaustive list, but rather just a few resources that we wanted to raise up to you today. There are many, many, many more resources available on ECLKC, and we do encourage you to take a look and explore those. And note that all of the pages on that website are translated into Spanish, if you need the additional support, you would just select the Espanol button at the top right-hand corner to see the Spanish translation of any documents you're looking for.

I just want to again make sure that everybody's aware, and I think that folks have been really, really great about getting copies of the tools themselves in the Chat, as well as copies of our slides for our presentation, our webcast today. Larissa, I just wanted to stop and see if there was anything that we needed to clarify, check in on, with any of these resources, anything that we want to make sure, since we have a few minutes, if there's anything that we wanted to elevate.

Larissa: Sure, Heather. The majority of the questions coming in are about accessing the slides and the tools to which we've been responding to. There are a number of folks who are having difficulty with the links, and so I think we just want to reiterate that the final documents will be posted to eClick, and they will have access. One of the questions that has come repeatedly is, whether they will have access to the sample that you just completed. I've been noting that it will be part of the recording, but I don't know that we would be able to share the live example. I'm not sure. Another question that came up is, how the shift in TA would be calculated, if there is a conversion.

Heather: The shift in TA is really — it's not a prescribed TA.  Like, if programs are more comfortable wanting to get support from the Office of Head Start on what that figure should look like, we're more than happy to support our programs in that way. But many times, we have programs who anticipate what their needs will be, and also propose figures and move those forward, which we are more than happy to entertain as well. Really, it's based on programmatic need. You all know your programs rather well, probably better than any of us do, obviously, since you're operating them. I think it would be great if programs wanted to propose Training and Technical Assistance dollars that they think that they will need as part of that conversion, then by all means, I think we're open to entertaining those requests.

Larissa: Great. One question I think Brian was just answering was, if a recipient has already submitted a Change in Scope request, do they need to resubmit it using these tools? Goodness, no.

Heather: Again, yes, these tools are very optional. If you already have a request in-house, then by all means, there is no need for you to redo them. However, if there is back-and-forth support, or there needs to be additional clarity around a budget, or something that may help in analyzing the request, maybe this is an opportunity to step back and say, oh, maybe we could show it in another way using this Budget Tool that was released by the Office of Head Start, as part of this better understanding, or helping the Office of Head Start better understand my Change in Scope request. I think it really just depends on where you're at in the Change in Scope process.

Larissa: We're seeing a huge influx in the Q and A now during this section. One of the things, there are a number of them that are very specific to recipient situations, and so of course, we strongly encourage everyone to contact your regional office and work with your program specialist, who best knows your program. And I just see one here, Heather, that I think we want to reiterate and reinforce. The question is — a Head Start conversion to EHS is not based on the number of slots multiplied by the Head Start cost per child to determine the amount it has to shift?

Heather: Do you want to take that one, Larissa?

Larissa: I was afraid I would answer it too strongly, but I would just say absolutely not. We want you to build a budget based on your vision and the services you want to provide. Using a formula is not only not helpful, but it can leave you with shortfalls for the things that you're trying to address.

Heather: And I couldn't have said it any better myself, a thousand percent, high-five — that is a great answer. Yes, it is absolutely not based on a formula or cost per child. If that's it, Larissa, we really want to thank you guys so much for all the great questions and answers that you guys have posed in Chat. We really hope these tools are of benefit to you guys, that you'll have an opportunity to use them, and hopefully we can get to a lot of sooner answers and sooner responses to your requests. And I, again, just really want to thank you guys for your time today and have a great one. Thank you!

Larissa: Thanks, everyone!