Head Start: Action Needed to Reduce Potential Risks to Children and Federal Funds in Programs under Interim Management. Report to Congressional Requesters. GAO-25-106954

US Government Accountability Office. 441 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20548. Tel: 202-512-6000; Web site: http://www.gao.gov

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Risk; Risk Assessment; Risk Management; Children; Federal Aid; Social Services; Federal Programs; Low Income Students; Standards; Child Safety; Program Evaluation; Enrollment; Compliance (Legal); Program Administration; Grants; Expenditures

When a community loses its Head Start provider, the Office of Head Start (OHS) deploys its interim manager to temporarily operate this federally funded early childhood education program. Since 2000, OHS has placed more than 200 programs under interim management. As of September 2024, 18 of 1,600 Head Start programs nationwide were under interim management. However, GAO found that OHS skipped crucial monitoring steps and did not enforce certain standards for programs under interim management for at least the last 5 school years. For example, it did not monitor half of the 28 programs due for monitoring between January 2020 and June 2024--leaving it unaware of documented and potential child safety incidents and other concerns. Further, OHS had neither assessed classroom quality nor monitored finances for all programs under interim management--both of which are required under the Head Start Act. Lastly, OHS officials stated that they had never enforced enrollment standards or required Head Start funds to be returned for children not served. In the 2022-2023 school year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that fewer than half of the nearly 4,000 Head Start seats available in programs under interim management were filled. This report examines the extent to which OHS's monitoring allows it to assess whether programs under interim management meet Head Start standards related to service quality, child safety, finances, and enrollment, among other things. GAO compared OHS's oversight to relevant federal laws, regulations, and OHS's monitoring procedures; analyzed enrollment data from the 2017-2018 through 2022-2023 school years; and compared state licensing violations to OHS records. GAO interviewed OHS officials and interim manager representatives, visited three Head Start programs to interview staff who worked under interim management, and interviewed representatives of another four programs that exited interim management since 2018. GAO selected programs that varied in size and time under interim management.

ERIC

2025

ED672855