Eligibility Recruitment Selection Enrollment and Attendance ERSEA 1

Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment and Attendance (ERSEA) 1

Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment and Attendance (ERSEA) 1302. 10 1302. 11 1302. 12 1302. 13 1302. 14 1302. 15 1302. 16 1302. 17 1302. 18 Purpose. Determining community strengths, needs and resources. Determining, verifying, and documenting eligibility. Recruitment of children. Selection process. Enrollment. Attendance. Suspension and expulsion. Fees. 2

1302. 10 Purpose This subpart describes requirements for determining community strengths and needs. It contains requirements and procedures for eligibility determination, recruitment, selection, enrollment and attendance of children and the policy regarding fees. 3

1302. 11 Determining community strengths, needs and resources • Service Areas ØNICAO serves a 9 county service area ØRegional Office must approve service area and any change to service area • Community Assessment ØRequired every 5 years ØReviewed and updated annually ØData is used to determine program structure and services. 4

1302. 12 Determining, verifying, and documenting eligibility Age Requirements: Ø For Head Start, children must be at least 3 years old Ø For Early Head Start, child must be under 3 years old (except when they are transitioning to Head Start) Eligibility Requirements: Ø Income below the poverty guidelines Ø Eligible for public assistance (TANF) Ø Homeless Ø Foster care Ø The program can enroll up to 10% of children who are over the income guidelines. Our program gives priority to children with special needs or high risk factors for these slots. Ø The program can enroll up to 35% with income between 100 -130%. 5

1302. 13 Recruitment of children Recruitment begins January of each year and continues until all slots are full. We continue to take applications all year and place children on waiting list. We are required to actively recruit the most vulnerable children – foster care, children with disabilities and homeless. We collaborate with DHS and AEA to find those children. 6

1302. 14 Selection process Our program selects children for enrollment based on established enrollment priorities. These are approved by Policy Council each year. 10% of our enrollment must be children with special needs. Our program is always able to meet this requirement and averages about 25%. 7

1302. 15 Enrollment Funded enrollment: 227 HS and 16 EHS Ø We must maintain full enrollment Ø Must fill vacancies within 30 days – even at the end of the program year – 60 day rule no longer applies Ø New provision allows reserving up to 3 percent of slots for 30 days for homeless and foster children 8

1302. 16 Attendance To ensure child safety, if a child does not come to school and parent has not called in. Ø Contact parents within one hour of school start Ø Contact bus/taxi company to see if child was picked up Our program promotes good attendance and has established attendance procedures. Ø Provide information to parents about the benefits of regular attendance at conferences, home visits and newsletters 9

1302. 16 Attendance Ø Family workers work with families to promote regular attendance and assist with any barriers Ø Teachers do a home visit when a child has multiple unexplained absences. Ø Monitor attendance monthly. If a child has missed more than 10%, we complete an attendance success plan with parents. Ø Monitor program attendance monthly to remain above 85% 10

1302. 17 Suspension and expulsion NEW section in HSPPS: Ø Prohibits expulsion and severely limits suspension Ø Provides steps for programs related to challenging behaviors Ø Elaborates on engaging mental health consultants described in 1302. 45 mental health and social and emotional well being regulation 11

1302. 18 Fees Serve most vulnerable children at no cost to families Ø Current requirement maintained: programs cannot charge a fee for Head Start services Ø Clarifies that fees can be paid for additional services outside of Head Start Ø Allows grantees to accept fees from non-Head Start enrolled families to support classrooms with diverse economic backgrounds 12

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