(a) Partnerships. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must take an active role in community planning to encourage strong communication, cooperation, and the sharing of information among agencies and their community partners and to improve the delivery of community services to children and families in accordance with the agency's confidentiality policies. Documentation must be maintained to reflect the level of effort undertaken to establish community partnerships (see 45 CFR 1304.51 for additional planning requirements).

(2) Grantee and delegate agencies must take affirmative steps to establish ongoing collaborative relationships with community organizations to promote the access of children and families to community services that are responsive to their needs, and to ensure that Early Head Start and Head Start programs respond to community needs, including:

(i) Health care providers, such as clinics, physicians, dentists, and other health professionals;

(ii) Mental health providers;

(iii) Nutritional service providers;

(iv) Individuals and agencies that provide services to children with disabilities and their families (see 45 CFR 1308.4 for specific service requirements);

(v) Family preservation and support services;

(vi) Child protective services and any other agency to which child abuse must be reported under State or Tribal law;

(vii) Local elementary schools and other educational and cultural institutions, such as libraries and museums, for both children and families;

(viii) Providers of child care services; and

(ix) Any other organizations or businesses that may provide support and resources to families.

(3) Grantee and delegate agencies must perform outreach to encourage volunteers from the community to participate in Early Head Start and Head Start programs.

(4) To enable the effective participation of children with disabilities and their families, grantee and delegate agencies must make specific efforts to develop interagency agreements with local education agencies (LEAs) and other agencies within the grantee and delegate agency's service area (see 45 CFR 1308.4(h) for specific requirements concerning interagency agreements).

(b) Advisory committees. Each grantee directly operating an Early Head Start or Head Start program, and each delegate agency, must establish and maintain a Health Services Advisory Committee which includes Head Start parents, professionals, and other volunteers from the community. Grantee and delegate agencies also must establish and maintain such other service advisory committees as they deem appropriate to address program service issues such as community partnerships and to help agencies respond to community needs.

(c) Transition services. (1) Grantee and delegate agencies must establish and maintain procedures to support successful transitions for enrolled children and families from previous child care programs into Early Head Start or Head Start and from Head Start into elementary school, a Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act preschool program, or other child care settings. These procedures must include:

(i) Coordinating with the schools or other agencies to ensure that individual Early Head Start or Head Start children's relevant records are transferred to the school or next placement in which a child ill enroll or from earlier placements to Early Head Start or Head Start;

(ii) Outreach to encourage communication between Early Head Start or Head Start staff and their counterparts in the schools and other child care settings including principals, teachers, social workers and health staff to facilitate continuity of programming;

(iii) Initiating meetings involving Head Start teachers and parents and kindergarten or elementary school teachers to discuss the developmental progress and abilities of individual children; and

(iv) Initiating joint transition-related training for Early Head Start or Head Start staff and school or other child development staff.

(2) To ensure the most appropriate placement and services following participation in Early Head Start, transition planning must be undertaken for each child and family at least six months prior to the child's third birthday. The process must take into account: The child's health status and developmental level, progress made by the child and family while in Early Head Start, current and changing family circumstances, and the availability of Head Start and other child development or child care services in the community. As appropriate, a child may remain in Early Head Start, following his or her third birthday, for additional months until he or she can transition into Head Start or another program.

(3) See 45 CFR 1304.40(h) for additional requirements related to parental participation in their child's transition to and from Early Head Start or Head Start.