dcl9318.htm

Head Start grantees program info report

DC-9318

April 22, 1993

Dear Colleague:

As you know, many Head Start families are eligible but do not receive child support. To communicate the value to children of legal paternity and regular child support to a single parent-family's economic security, many state and local IV-D programs have conducted outreach efforts to Head Start parents and staff.

On the national and regional levels we are exploring ways to establish effective links between our programs. We have fostered and participated in educational, training and information exchange projects and learned that there is a high degree of interest in child support among Head Start staff and parents.

To increase awareness among Head Start parents about getting regular child support, and to spur outreach from local child support agencies, OCSE has been successful in having three YES/NO questions added to the Program Information Report (PIR) that all Head Start grantees submit each year. They are:

o Does your program furnish written or other information about child support enforcement services to potentially eligible parents?

o Does your program have a procedure for referring potentially eligible custodial parents to child support enforcement services?

o If your answer to [the above] question is YES, does your program have arrangements with child support agencies for the referral of parents and the distribution of information?

We are hopeful that these questions will encourage Head Start parents to try to increase their families' financial security by seeking the child support that is rightfully theirs. We also urge you to meet Head Start parents halfway by making your services--particularly paternity and award establishment--known to them. Head Start programs offer many ways to do this through parent education programs and social services components. We hope you will actively pursue these opportunities to reach out to Head Start parents and staff with child support information.

Sincerely,

Robert H. Harris

cc: ACF Regional Administrators

OCSE Regional Program Managers