Status of ABC's Current Head Start Contract
ABC has provided Head Start services for our community’s infants, toddlers and families for almost 60 years. Through ups and downs of national funding threats and program changes, ABC has consistently operated one of the highest quality early childhood education programs in the country as independently assessed by the federal government and local evaluation entities. It is our intent to provide these critical services to eligible families for many years to come. There is current speculation about these services being unfunded or disrupted. We would like to bring clarity to this issue.
Monroe County’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs were put out for competitive bid by the federal government in late 2023 to provide services beginning in the 2024-2025 school year. Due to the nature of federal grantmaking and contracting processes, the decision on a grantee or grantees has been delayed until late May. Out of an abundance of caution and full transparency to our very committed ABC staff and Board members, the agency provided a verbal notice of a potential disruption of funding as required by the state and federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Acts (WARN Act). These Acts require notification to employees of possible layoffs 90 days in advance of such a potential event – or (if an unforeseen external event occurs with the 90-day window) as soon as an organizational learns of such a potential event. With ABC’s current contract scheduled to conclude on June 30 and with a clarification about the timing of the current contracting process, the agency provided our Early Childhood Education staff this notification to comply with the law. These notifications were made to ABC staff (verbally on May 3rd; in writing on May 6th), to SEIU Local 200 United, and to ABC’s partner in providing Head Start Services, the Ibero-American Action League. Both ABC and IBERO provide year-round Early Head Start Services – including during the summer.
The federal bid selection and contracting process is still ongoing. Our expectation is that a decision will be made before the end of May, after which negotiations will begin with the selected grantee(s) to provide services for the 2024-2025 school year. ABC expects to be selected due to the quality of our bid submission and our history of outstanding early childhood work. However, we will also honor the federal process and the time needed for those decisions to be made. As a result of the timing difference between the end of the current contract (June 30th), the selection of a grantee(s), and start of a new contract (expected September 2024), we are currently pursuing alternative contingency funding for the months of July and August so that there is no lapse of service to Early Head Start families, to retain our highly trained and dedicated staff, and to keep our facilities ready for the school year. In this regard, we have contacted, and are grateful for the support of our federal, state, county and city elected officials and union, all of whom are aware and extremely helpful to ABC in this process.
We will continue to keep our families, staff and overall community informed as this process unfolds over the next several weeks.
ABC has provided Head Start services for our community’s infants, toddlers and families for almost 60 years. Through ups and downs of national funding threats and program changes, ABC has consistently operated one of the highest quality early childhood education programs in the country as independently assessed by the federal government and local evaluation entities. It is our intent to provide these critical services to eligible families for many years to come. There is current speculation about these services being unfunded or disrupted. We would like to bring clarity to this issue.
Monroe County’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs were put out for competitive bid by the federal government in late 2023 to provide services beginning in the 2024-2025 school year. Due to the nature of federal grantmaking and contracting processes, the decision on a grantee or grantees has been delayed until late May. Out of an abundance of caution and full transparency to our very committed ABC staff and Board members, the agency provided a verbal notice of a potential disruption of funding as required by the state and federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Acts (WARN Act). These Acts require notification to employees of possible layoffs 90 days in advance of such a potential event – or (if an unforeseen external event occurs with the 90-day window) as soon as an organizational learns of such a potential event. With ABC’s current contract scheduled to conclude on June 30 and with a clarification about the timing of the current contracting process, the agency provided our Early Childhood Education staff this notification to comply with the law. These notifications were made to ABC staff (verbally on May 3rd; in writing on May 6th), to SEIU Local 200 United, and to ABC’s partner in providing Head Start Services, the Ibero-American Action League. Both ABC and IBERO provide year-round Early Head Start Services – including during the summer.
The federal bid selection and contracting process is still ongoing. Our expectation is that a decision will be made before the end of May, after which negotiations will begin with the selected grantee(s) to provide services for the 2024-2025 school year. ABC expects to be selected due to the quality of our bid submission and our history of outstanding early childhood work. However, we will also honor the federal process and the time needed for those decisions to be made. As a result of the timing difference between the end of the current contract (June 30th), the selection of a grantee(s), and start of a new contract (expected September 2024), we are currently pursuing alternative contingency funding for the months of July and August so that there is no lapse of service to Early Head Start families, to retain our highly trained and dedicated staff, and to keep our facilities ready for the school year. In this regard, we have contacted, and are grateful for the support of our federal, state, county and city elected officials and union, all of whom are aware and extremely helpful to ABC in this process.
We will continue to keep our families, staff and overall community informed as this process unfolds over the next several weeks.
