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District outlines Head Start continuation plan, cites rising early-childhood referrals and enrollment challenges
Summary
District Head Start staff told the board they are in the second year of a five-year continuation grant and described rising referrals, high dual-language and special education referral rates, and program requirements tied to staffing and monitoring.
Jennifer Walker, Head Start program manager for the Monroe County School District, briefed the board April 14 on the Head Start continuation application and on program operations for the 2025-26 cycle.
Walker said the district is in year two of a five-year Head Start continuation grant and that the program must be fully enrolled with 180 students, with attendance objectives set by federal Head Start (85% required; the district strives for 95%). She told the board the program aligns its goals to the district's strategic improvement plan and to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and that the program's end-of-year monitoring goal is for 70% of students to meet or exceed expectations in each goal area.
Walker flagged a rise in early-childhood referrals and said staff are identifying more students for evaluation: Head Start referrals rose from 10 at midyear in 2024 to 22 at midyear in 2025; similarly, VPK referrals rose from 9 to 20 over the same period. Walker said the district is seeing increases in developmental-delay and speech-and-language referrals and attributed some delays to the "COVID-baby" cohort.
She described program requirements and supports: classrooms mix three- and four-year-olds with two instructional staff, lead staff must hold at least an associate degree in early childhood education, paraprofessionals must earn a CDA within two years, and Head Start services include meals, transportation, dental and medical screening, mental-health services, family advocates and parent-engagement supports such as ReadyRosie. Walker said Head Start requires that 10% of enrollment be children with disabilities and noted demographic challenges: the Head Start program has 69% dual-language learners and VPK 44%.
Walker described budget priorities within the continuation application: salaries and benefits comprise the majority of grant spending, the district provides 34% in-kind support for teacher retention, and budgeted items include professional learning (training and technical assistance), playground equipment and safety radios, curriculum and classroom supplies, and contracts for comprehensive student services (dental, medical, nutrition and mental-health supports) and interpretation services.
Board members asked clarifying questions. One asked whether the higher referral numbers mean the district is identifying more students or experiencing delays in processing IEPs; Walker said they are identifying more students and that early-childhood referrals can be moved into the evaluation process sooner than in older grades. Another member asked whether the Teaching Strategies GOLD progress monitoring is required by the program; Walker said the district uses it by choice to align to curriculum objectives and that STAR Early Literacy is a state-mandated progress monitoring tool for four-year-olds.
Walker said staff plan to use professional learning, curriculum review and earlier summer screening and intervention to address increased developmental and speech-language needs, and she said management-team staff on 12-month contracts will begin screenings earlier in the year to start interventions ahead of the school opening.
Ending: The board received the report and asked follow-up questions about identification and support timelines; no vote was required on the continuation report during the meeting.
