Head Start Program Performance Standards Rollout Webcast
Ann Linehan: Welcome Dr. -- Dr. Enriquez, and our policy director, Colleen Rathgeb. And hopefully, we can answer many, many of your questions that have been rapidly coming in. I think we have over 150 questions. So obviously, we are not going to get to all of them today. But we will have a continuing dialogue with you. And one thing I want to do. A little bit of housekeeping before we get into the questions. One, this webcast that you are seeing now, as some of you had technical difficulties and didn't see the beginning of the webcast, it is -- By the time you finish listening to us today it will be posted on the EKCLC.
Many of you have asked about the slides, those that were part of the webcast. They will also be posted on ECLKC. And also, if you take a look, if you go on ECLKC, and look under "About Head Start," under "New Policy," you'll find the webcast, and you'll find the printer-friendly version of the Performance Standards. We understand that someone clicked the button, and I guess, on the Federal Register and got 625 pages. Well the condensed version, which is happy to tell you, is 110. But one cautionary note. The printer-friendly version which is 110 pages could not include the Preamble. That will be posted soon, I believe next week on ECLKC. And that will certainly be more friendly -- user format than you are finding when you look at the Federal Register. But we want to stress a thousand times over, reading the Preamble is incredibly important. So, please don't forget to do that. The other thing that I want to mention also.
The Standards will be available in Spanish the week of nineteenth. September 19. And I know many of our callers are anxious to get a hold of these Spanish versions. And I think that's probably the housekeeping items that I wanted to address. And I also, head on, want to address several questions about monitoring. And I know, it's about a month ago, Dr. Enriquez, you sent out a letter kind of putting the Head Start community at ease, talking about how we were going to modify our, our monitoring schedule this year. And, we can -- that is also listed on ECLKC, that I would ask people to visit it, because it does talk about the modified schedule. We are communicating with any grantee individually that will have a visit this year. Because some things will continue, as you know. Our ERSE reviews and our CLASS reviews. And we have certainly some Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership reviews that to be done. Also, we reserve the right, if there are any issues that pops up with us throughout the year, we will do a targeted review.
But the crust here is that the modification means that there will be many, many, many, many fewer reviews done this year because we want to give the community an opportunity to become familiarized. Immerse yourself in the Standards. And you say, "Well, what's the protocol going to look like?" These are things that we are working on as we are talking to you today. We don't have the answer in terms of what that new system is going to look like in FY'18. But, just, and we will continue to communicate with you about monitoring. But we, Blanca, Dr. Enriquez, I think, has said stay calm. And believe me, this is a partnership, an unfolding a roll out the entire year. So I am not sure that's alleviated anyone's concerns about monitoring. But we are fully committed to a modified schedule this year. So, I am going to, let's go to the first, start question. And actually, this is kind of an easy one. We got actually a couple of questions. This is of --The first question we got -- oh. Okay. Colleen.
Colleen Rathgeb: So, we got a question from Melissa Harris. And she asked about whether the new Performance Standards supersede the Head Start Act. And I think that's a great question. And so, we want to be very clear that the Head Start Act is absolutely still in effect. The regulations do not supersede the Act. The regulations may act more together. So that there are some places in the Act that they require that we publish regulations. If you know the Head Start Act, the last three authorization required that we do this wholesale revision of the Performance Standards. But, there are not conflicts between the Head Start Act and the regulations. There are some places where they speak to the issues in both the Head Start Act and in the regulations and other places. It is both either in the regulation or in the Act. They work together, and so we will be. One comment that we have gotten through the process was people asking -- instead of referencing the Act, to pick up all the language of the Act and put it directly in the same document, that is not the way the Final Rule has worked in the actual code of Federal regulation. So, in many places that we want to reference the Act, that the Act is updated, that it automatically doesn’t make a regulations out of date. Or for us, for other reasons, it is best to do that reference. However, we're working on a TA reference doc, document where all the references to the Act that were in the regulation will be in an appendix so that it's very easy to go between the two provisions. But very clear, if something is in the Head Start Act, it’s still is in effect.
Ann: I'm going to take an easy one, Colleen. And actually, we've got two questions about this. And, Masood, we require that the grantee service areas cannon overlap be removed. And the answer is, yes, it was removed. So that is no longer a requirement.
Colleen: It is not a requirement that they do overlap. It's again, the requirement that you have an established service area, and that is approved by the HHS official. So, there are some places where it made sense, even under current regulations that we were actually approving overlapping service areas even though the regulation said that technically, you know, they weren't supposed to. So this is just a more flexibility, or that it has to be one way or the other.
Ann: And what about, Colleen, since you're on a roll here. If you could talk a little bit about the whole issue of the requirements, and the finances needed to support certain things, and grantees certainly been having, the comments being spelled out, a big question for us on sort of the [Inaudible] considerations. Yeah.
Colleen: It looks like we've gotten quite a few questions about the delational requirements and funding to support those requirements. So, I want to start with just walking back through some of the big changes to the way we are, we have the duration requirements in the Final Rule, as opposed to what was in the MCRM. And because I also think some folks might not have heard the beginning of the conversation and it's critically important. Obviously, all of you haven't had time to read everything yet. We know you will over the next coming days and weeks. But we have in the MCRM, we have proposed six hours a day at a 180 days a year. We have not taken that approach in the Final Rule. The Final Rule it gives more flexibility in how you get those longer, equivalent to a full day in a full school year. And so, we have an annual hours approach. So, this is something that many people suggested and commented on. So instead of the six hours a day, 180 days a year, we are saying Head Start slots over time within a five-year window will need to move to 1020 hours per year. We also, instead of in the MCRM it was all kind of happening really happening in one year, we are giving five years to meet that, that goal of all of the slots to the 1020 hours.
We also have put in, as folks know, that within three years, we are moving Head Start programs -- 50 percent of every Head Start program slot to the new 1020 hours. We do, as folks know the President requested it, and we were given almost $300 Million that right now we are in the process of reviewing applications for to support this requirement. The President budget in 2017 requested another almost
$300 Million to support this requirement. And, going forward, it will be expected that will be something that will be continuing this investment. But obviously that is something that is, the Congressional purview not ours. So, we not only can award funds as Congress appropriated to us, we did, however because of the concern about funding in future years, we have in the regulation authority for the Secretary to decide to lower or pull back the targets in the 2019 and 2021 for the duration. So the Secretary, the future Secretary could determine that they would pull those back. So, there's a number of provisions that are prone to make this a more achievable goal, which we think is great because I think we really believe that this is a very good place to go for kids to have greater exposure to high-quality learning. But we also do understand that those resources are required to support those changes.
Ann: Actually, we did get, I want to comment. We've gotten a lot of questions on the print-friendly version, and we're going to send out an e-blast this afternoon, to get, to provide the links. I do want to say, Colleen, just a couple of questions that have come up about the date of -- 60 days from what date. Is it today? Or is it another day?
Colleen: It is another day. So, the today, these rules are being announced in the Federal Register. They are on what is called public display, which is kind of a preview day. So everyone can see it on the web. So there actually aren’t officially being published until Tuesday. So, the day after Labor Day. And so, that means that effective date goes 60 days from next Tuesday. That is November 7. So, November 7 is the day that these will officially go into effect. However, I want to point people to the PI that came out today that outlined a number of provisions that have later effective dates. Those are also in what's called the compliance table and the Preamble. So, there are other provisions that we are we realized will take additional time for grantees to be able to meet. And so, those will have effective dates of next August, the following August, or a consideration as far out as five years from now.
Ann: And I, just the other comment that came in. It's our friend Danny Wells said: Do you really expect us to read these in 60 days and know them completely. And I think, the truth is there's so many things -- When folks begin to take a look at the new Standards, you're going to recognize so much what is in there. And I think, Danny, we know how incredibly bright you are. People are going to have the time.
And there are certain things that people said that "We're doing that. We've been doing this for years." I think a very significant portion of these standards, it seems, the grantees are doing already. And it just might have a new citation, and it might be in a different place than it was before. So, as Dr. Enriquez said. Phew. Relax. I think we're going to get there.
Dr. Blanca Enriquez: Absolutely. People need to relax. There'll be time. They'll recognize a lot of the standards because they know the standards. There's another question, a very interesting question here from Dan. It says, "Can you speak to the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships and the Performance Standards?" Well, Dan, it's important to know that everybody, that the standards apply to all programs. They apply to Head Start programs, Early Head Start programs, and Early Head Start-Child Care programs. So the standards that you read here, whatever program you are implementing, those standards apply to you.
Ann: And Blanca, someone asked about are we going to do a crosswalk, you know, comparing the old to the new. Blanca: Right. And I mentioned in the beginning of the webcast. Do away with your old Performance Standards, because we want you to immerse yourselves in the new Performance
Standards. That means, we will not be doing the crosswalk. Because we want people to just look, focus their attention on the new Performance Standards. There is, however, a table in the Preamble, there's still a comparison of some parts of, some parts of the comparison. But other than that, we will not create any crosswalk.
Ann: So, Mr. Fillmore from Michigan asked a question on the governance sections of the standards. And Early Head Start/Head Start programs still required to conduct monthly parent meetings. This was a big, big issue for comments, in terms of the parent committee. Blanca: Yes. That was a big issue. And we received a lot of comments, and we placed the parent committee back on the, in the regulation. Parent committees are required to be established by the programs. However, we are not necessarily dictating how programs are to engage the parent committees. This is part of the flexibility. So we say programs, you decide how to engage your parents.
We do ask, however, that parents be engaged in three areas. That they have advised staff and development, and implementing local policies that communities and services that meet the need of communities and families. That programs have a process for communication. A parent committee like the policy council. And, that guidelines to establish by the governing body and the policy council and the parent committee to participate in this screening and recruitment of employees for Head Start and Early Head Start. But other than that, programs decide how they will engage their parent committee.
Ann: Thanks. Colleen. I know that the QRIS is certainly something people, very interested in understanding. Could you speak a little bit to the participation of Head Start programs. Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
Colleen: Sure. We've certainly gotten a couple of questions about the QRIS participation, of whether it applies to both Head Start and Early Head Start, the effective date, and what exactly it means. So, the QRIS participation -- we do force folks to look at that. We are requiring participation in state or local QRIS programs if -- and this is important. We have some real modifiers here. So, we heard in the comments that people thought putting this is valuable to QRIS. We also heard people were worried about duplication and monitoring, and they already have Head Start monitoring. And so to have states to come in and do ratings didn’t make a lot of sense to them so.
So, wherever on the Final Rule is that programs [Inaudible] programs participate in QRIS, but only if their state or local QRIS will take the evidence from our Head Start and monitoring to show that they meet the criteria that are in those state tiers. So, if the indicators of their criteria is something that Head Start monitors on, then you're state or local QRIS should take all the monitoring data to prove that you meet those criteria so that we don't have a situation where we're coming in and looking at your ratios, and your curriculum, and your teacher qualifications, and then you have to have the state come in and look at those very same things. So, we think that this is a win-win where we can maximize the different data, the monitoring that is going on, and we can really streamline Head Start participation in these systems so that parents can really understand what's going on, that the Head Start is really part of this important quality work. But we're not having... We're not having a duplication going on.
Ann: So let's -- Before we get through an important, another important question, I just want to -- People have asked, several people have asked about what about all the existing IMs, and PIs, ad all the wonderful policy clarifications that people have been depending on for years. Obviously, we have already begun updating those to be consistent with the new requirements, the new citations. Some will be outdated. Some will be deleted. It really is a huge overhaul. But we're in the process, and I would say ECLKC, I'm sorry, Elana. Go ahead. Someone help me with this.
Elana: We have 60 days. When these become effective, the IMs and PIs, will either be deleted if that's appropriate or kept if that's appropriate. But at the end of the 60 days, the IMs and PIs will be updated, as well.
Ann: Okay.
Colleen: We also got a question that I think is important. And I think it relates to the question that Ann was taking about before from Danny Wells. Was, really are we saying 60 days everything needs to be in place and all these new standards need to be different, and you need to understand every nuance of this, and I think while -- Ann said a lot of them are exact same standard as they were before. And, it's almost as if, our staff as we have to do this is that we can't have the Head Start, the old rule go out of effect without a new rule in place. We have lots of health and safety standards in here. Basic education standards that you’ve always had. the same health standard about when kids need screening. And, also all of those basic, we are expecting people to continue to be able to do, and the new standards will be in effect officially, with the 60 days.
We understand there are some that are really big risks, that are purposefully putting off for a year, or two years, or five years. There's also, you know, somewhere, some of these in between. And that's, I think, Ann talked about it beginning and Blanca said in a notification about monitoring about monitoring, really only looking at things like ERSE, and CLASS, ad your health and safety over the next year, which are those issues that really haven't changed. So programs should not be feeling like they need to in the next 60 days to have everything in place. This is the purpose. Similarly in 2007 Act, if people remember. Those technically went into effect immediately, and technically everything that was new in the Act, the programs were supposed to be doing immediately, expect for those few things like teacher qualifications that had date further out. But similarly, we kind of had a pause in how much we were monitoring that year to give programs the time to absorb and implement and be thoughtful about how they were doing it. Blanca, Ann, is there anything to kind of add on that? Blanca: No. No.
Ann: So we're going to flip to my old colleague Jerry Gomez. Who doesn't surprise me. He asked a question about governance. So we really said that registering the law requires the piecing, to approve this approve of hiring and dismissal of Head Start staff. Can you clarify PC's role from the individual hiring of Head Start staff. May a program include PC approval of individual hiring and dismissal procedures that they approve? Again first we want to reiterate, the governance section with the exception of the advisory committees and the parenting committee did not change significantly because we relied on the statutory language in the act. And in the Act, it made it clear that programs have some flexibility here. Getting back to Jerry’s question, if that's what the, if that's what the program choices to do in their policies and procedures, and those policies and procedures are approved by the Policy Council, the boards, then the answer is yes. So again, there's some flexibility but it all goes back to what the policies and procedures are that are developed and jointly approved by the board and the Policy Council.
Colleen: We got a number of questions, also about home-based for children older than three. So home- based for preschoolers. And this is an area that MPRM, we had proposed not having that as a standard option, and we heard from a lot of programs that this was really something for some families, for some communities, this was the best option and suggesting that we change that decision. That decision is changed in the Final Rule. So home-based, remains a standard option for both infants and toddlers as it had in the MCRM, and for preschoolers. The one new nuance is that we are saying that programs have to have at least another option for preschoolers. That home-based can't be the only option for preschool children.
But as long as there are other options for preschool-aged children, home-based can be a standard option. And, the -- the vast majority. I believe all but one program, or maybe two, have, or do not have home-based as the only option for preschoolers. We have very few slots across the country that are home-based for preschoolers, but a small number of slots, in, in not a insignificant number of programs. So we've heard, so we've heard that from programs and have made that change in the Final Rule. The home-based can still be a standard option for preschoolers.
Ann: Colleen, we continue to get questions. And even though we started to address it, there are several other questions about, are we going to get additional money for teacher training. Are we going to get additional money for curriculum training. And someone made our colleague Miriam made a very compelling case for when you have kids with extremely challenging behaviors. And you, know we've got a very stoic expulsion rule. You know. Where're we going to get the money to enhance the services that provide the training? And I think the bottom line is we get money when Congress appropriates more money. And I think what, what Colleen said was we have the budget we have, and you have the budget you have. I think if you have to make choices, and sometimes there are very difficult choices, to shift money from something. It could be servicing, the number of kids you're servicing because you want to shift those moneys because you have to do something that is what you feel is more important to the quality of the program. Then I think those are the decisions that I think you've seen, you know. We at the Office of Head Start be supported of. So the money question about are you going to give us more money. That is not within our purview, and that's really up to Congress. So, we won't be answering any more of those today not because we don't care and think it's important. It's just not something that we have control over.
Colleen: With that, we have a question about the definition of agricultural work. And that is something that we had comments from the Migrant and Seasonal community, looking for some more flexibility in that definition And that was something that we were able to accommodate in the Final Rule. So, there the definition of migrant farm work is not as prescriptive as it has been in the Final Rule.
Ann: I'm looking at questions. I don't quite understand it. Do you understand, Colleen?
Colleen: I think I do. So, this is actually in some ways related to the IM, PI Policy Clarification. There's lots of guidance that have gone out over the years, including the stable 50 questions in the Migrant and Seasonal community. There's a lot of policy interpretations about the way different regulations or things in the Act work. So, we the thing that we think is great about having done the wholesale revision, that we now have 110, as well as our Act, as someone asked before. These 110 pages are all of the Head Start regulations there are. So if it does not exist in this 110 pages, it is not a Head Start regulation. You guys all know that there are other things that apply to you. Other laws like the EDA, or the Civil Rights Act, or other Federal requirements, like the uniform guidance that applies to everyone that gets that Federal funding.
But these 110 are the only regulatory provisions that govern Head Start specifically. So, if there's longstanding policy about the way something has done, many cases, that, you can continue to do that if it’s within these requirements, within these regulations. But if there's something that conflicts with these regulations, these regulations are kind of the new requirements. So, as Alana said, we'll be looking at what other IMs or PIs need to be updated, and also doing a lot of taking out of the guidance. One of the things we hope to have done is in clear in these regulations, but also, as Blanca talked about, beyond it's regulation grantees know their community and their programs and families at best about how to implement these. So, we are hopeful that we will not be following up this with more [Inaudible]guidance about how you are supposed to be doing these pieces. These 110 pages are the regulation.
Ann: Actually, there was one here. But, I just. Pull down and get it. [Inaudible]
Colleen: So, in the, in the NCRM, the home-based socialization sites was looped in the things that needed to be licensed. We clarified that, because people couldn't raise things. Like, if they did socialization at a library, or there, that would not necessarily make sense. And that's right. We have been clear that the socialization sites must be safe and must meet our requirements round safety. But they do not need to be exclusively licensed.
Ann: Colleen, do you know -- and I actually, see, I'm still learning. Right? Does programs continue to have the option to just continue with replacement vacancies within 60 days of the last day of school.
Colleen: So, we have programs have 30 days to fill a vacancy. We did use [Inaudible] that you have 60 days that you were given a free pass. If a child with two months left in the program, or that you were 50 days, you didn't have to fill that all. We have taken that at all. We do think that in many cases, particularly if you have a waitlist, programs that particularly operate for 8 months, if you have a vacancy for a child that does not have a high-quality slot. And you know, maybe he's going to Kindergarten next year, the idea is that if the families that want Head Start for two months, we absolutely think that's an important thing as opposed to holding slots vacant for a quarter of the program. And so, now, the 30- day is the, is the only provision where vacancies are not expected to be filled.
Ann: You know, Colleen, this last question is an interesting one, because you started off talking about duration and how more research, you know, research tells us more is better or children. And when it is really a six-hour day would be an, in some cases, optimal for a child. So I think, years ago we kind of used to say for the longer -- if you're going to go full year, full day, you really want to focus on the full day for working parents. So, I think --
Colleen: And I think that's great. We've got the -- all the working parents have been about longer. The six-hour day is really a school day, and all the folks that work in that one the phone know that that doesn't do a heck of a lot to get you actually -- not nearly enough to get you to a full working day's work that you need, but it is certainly a lot longer for kids depending within three and half hours. But no, there is no requirement that programs need certain, that parents or families meet certain requirements for different hours of programs. We do -- programs need to set up their selection criteria and their policies. But we do no longer have a requirement about what we're prescribing about how they make that determination. And, we just received anther pledge to say we also don't have a requirement for a six-hour day. So, we have a requirement for 1020 hours, and we want to make sure that people really understand that, and, even on a short hand call it, full day, full year, full year, that we're not implying that's that the right way to do it. We are really purposefully giving grantees flexibility to figure what works for their families and in their communities. And to implement that.
Ann: I'm going to push you a little more. So, I'm a grantee. I'm looking at, you know, the 1020, and I'm saying, "Okay. I'm going to do six-hour day," you know. But, what about kids coming in? Dismissal? What about arrivals and dismissals? What -- included in my six hours, or --
Colleen: So, we talk, and what is included in not six hours, but the the 1020 hours, is hours of planned operation. And so, we do have a definition that is in the regulation that is hours when children are scheduled to attend. Professional [Inaudible] the trainings, transportation, classroom sanitation, conferences. Those don't apply. And I think we, you need to look at your program. If you have a program that truly has a kind of drop-off that nothing was going on in the classroom, or you're going somewhere else, and a kind of drop-off that nothing is going on in the classroom or you're going somewhere else, and the transitions are somehow not part of the day, then, if it's really not part of your operation, then I guess it would not. I think in most programs your transitions are part of the whole day, and things start going on with it, the children when they, when they're coming in, when they're leaving, when they're eating, when they're -- So, we think all those parts of the day. But if there are truly parts of the day that maybe ratios are different, or there's really nothing that is, the children are not attended in the classroom, then it would not count. But --
Ann: So one question. And I don't think we talked about this earlier. The three-year term on the Policy Council. And Rocky Mountain is asking if it changed to five years. Yes. However, it changed, a parent can serve on a policy council or one can be a Policy Council member up to five years. However, there's still need to be annual elections. So if someone is reelected, elected and re-elected for four years, that's fine.
Colleen: We also got a question about, clarification about family-style meal service. Do children serve themselves? So, we were very clear in the, the regulation that family-style meals are still encouraged. There was a belief that somehow because we didn't use the word "family-style meals" in our SRM, then there was no longer allowed. So that children's serving themselves. That is absolutely still encouraged. WE know that there are some places and some programs, whether because of licensing, or school systems, or other words, children serving themselves, is it possible with their other requirements. We encourage programs to make that work, and I know many programs have. But what we put in as requirement in the rule is that all of that, other pieces of family-style meal is still in place. That programs that mealtime must be a social, engaging activity with the children. The students and adults eat together. That there's conversation that's used for learning time, and we encourage family-style meals. But, that particular aspect, while a best practice, is not something that is tenable and was really able to enforce under the previous regulation.
Ann: Someone just brought up an interesting question and I'm, and maybe it's not on a lot of folks mind. But when we send out of the guidance around the uniformed guidance, which was not that was not an Office of Head Start specific reg, that was an agency HHS-wide regulation. They had implementation dates that were effective, I think it was December -- it was a different implementation schedule. And I think some of the -- some of their regulation kicked in when the grantee got a new reward. That was departmental policy. That was departmental implementation. Ours is different and ours do kick in for all grantees regardless of where you are in your grant cycle 60 days after the day of publishing. And again, several more people are saying, "I'm trying to get on ECLKC, I’m trying to click on and, you know, I'm not getting exactly what I need to get." You know, it's just been posted. There might be a few little kinks in the system. Bu again, I think later today we'll send out a, an e-blast to try to clarify. We're looking at all the quirky, quirky things that are going on. We'll get an e-blast later today with links so folks should have no difficulty.
Colleen: We've got a couple questions about caring for our children, and caring for our children basics. So, we want to be clear that I think many people are familiar with the Caring for Our Children, a very wealthy volume of best practices with lots of, lots of components of research, and very large document, and in some ways, documents that we might all aspire to, but actually can conflict with our regulations or other pieces. We also have, which is what is sited in the regulation a ACF, and work with ERSA, and AT to come up with what we call Caring for Our Children basics. And so, the, again, a more baseline of what we feel like all programs should be able to do and need to be. It is not -- we reference Caring for our Children Basics as something programs should consult, as they are developing their policies and procedures around health and safety. So you should look at the requirements and the regulation within policy and procedures that programs need to set up to ensure that their facilities, their classrooms, their staff behavior, that, that all of that is health and safe -- is healthy and safe for children and they should use Caring as a resource in developing those policies and procedures. But it is not something that we would be looking and monitoring against the actual provisions of putting the how’s of those procedures in our monitoring work. We got a couple questions about how the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership requirements that they, for funding that they operate for 10 hours a day. And how that works with the 1380.
So, we want to be clear that 1380, the hour of the year is the new baseline for all Early Head Start, whether you are funded as a Partnership site, you are funded 20 years ago, that 1380's everybody is going to need to move to. However, there are some programs like those in the Partnership and others that through funding opportunities said we're going to, either we were required for this funding opportunity to operate at 10 hours a day, or again, in the Partnership, if people came in and act as they were funding for. It is absolutely our expectation that for people that were funded to go 10 hours a day, because that's what the children that you are serving, so that was either like with a Partnership or was in the funding opportunity announcement, or another fund, you came in and that's what you're family needed and that's what you're funded for should stay, and we expect will continue to operate at what they were funded before. 1380 is just a minimum for all.
Ann: So Colleen, I know that we're, we're getting our signal that we need to wrap it up. There are a lot of questions that came in that relate to more, kind of, implementation issues, TA issues. There are a couple of questions that frankly stump me. Probably not you. But we're going to be responsive to all these questions. And again this just, we're trying to get our feet wet today. We're trying to highlight some of the big changes. But this is just a very, very beginning conversation. I don't want anyone to be frustrated, active to their questions. We will get to these questions and provide responses to, as if, some of these are individual grantees. So we got an address. We'll be able to respond. But the ones that will benefit the larger community, we will be able to provide as to that. But again, this helps us think about training materials, T/TA. So, we urge you to continue to participate and continue to submit your questions.
Colleen: And I do think, I think you're right and we're going to have lots of opportunities. I think the nice things -- I see some questions we're going along here that totally are reasonable questions to ask now, but as soon you read the standards, you’ll see that it's something that is addressed. We got a question about what are the 45, you know timeline started, that when they're expected or the day they enter the classroom. I think that when you look and read the standards now, nervous I think they're has been a confusion in the past, it's much clearer than it is, the first home visit in the home-based, or the first day attending a class in classroom-based. So, I think there will be places. So what we don't want is folks to start peppering in all sorts of questions also before they've taken some time to read the rule, read the Preamble, look at the website again. We're going to be having a lot of opportunities for, people to send in trainings. We want questions, but we also want people to first spend some time with the materials.
Ann: Right.
Colleen: That's a great question. But it's a good example of, I hope less will be clearer, and so, the question won't actually need to, to comment.
Ann: Exactly.
Colleen: So, Dr. Enriquez, we're going to wrap it up. Our closing comments part today.
Dr. Enriquez: Our grantees, partners, teams, Head Start familia, these are some exciting times. And this is a new day for Head Start, and we urge everybody to embrace a new Head Start Performance Standard, and get excited, and be looking at how you're going to innovate, how you’re going to make the changes that you need in order to make the Head Start Standards come alive for your community. We thank you so much, and we look forward to continuing this dialogue. [End video]
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