Indian Issues Regarding Head Start Reauthorization. Joint Hearing To Expand the Provisions of Head Start Services and To Improve the Overall Quality of Head Start Programs, before the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Labor and Human Resources. United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session.

A joint Senate committee hearing received testimony on the unique circumstances and needs of American Indian Head Start programs. There are currently about 120 Indian Head Start programs providing services to 181 American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The Associate Commissioner of the Head Start Bureau described the ongoing federal initiative aimed at improving and expanding Head Start by making additional financial and technical assistance available to Head Start grantees. U.S. Senators, tribal leaders, Indian parents, and representatives of the National Indian Head Start Directors Association, the National Head Start Association, the National Indian Education Association, and individual Indian Head Start programs discussed the following issues: (1) potential weakening of the federal-tribal nation-to-nation relationship by proposed decentralization of federal administrative functions for serving Indian children; (2) eligibility requirements that exclude educationally disadvantaged children whose family income is marginally above the maximum; (3) restrictions that prevent a tribal program from serving Indians of other tribes or its own members living off-reservation; (4) need for pre-natal services and services for infants and toddlers; (5) obstacles to construction and renovation of Head Start facilities by Indian grantees; (6) funding difficulties and additional program costs related to the remoteness of many Indian communities; (7) insufficient funds to address the training needs of staff, parents, and volunteers; and (8) need for Head Start services in unserved Indian communities. Appended materials include legislative recommendations, numerical data on Head Start programs, and descriptions of individual tribal programs. (SV)