Blog 2

For the Past 2 weeks I have spent approximately 3 hours with the Assistant Director between her meetings, conferences and  trainings.  The time was well spent as she gave me information on the important changes as to the direction that the Head Start Program is going.   Some of the things that she informed me  of were that instead of Kindergarten Transition for children who previously children were going to Kindergarten the fall of the next year.  For example if a child was 4 years of age when they entered the Head Start program, by the time they leave the program they will be 5 or they will turn 5 before December 1^st.   Further,  as previously stated that Kindergarten Transition will now be referred to as School Readiness for all children and not just 4 and 5 year olds.  She stated that domains for preschool children will align with kindergarten readiness goals as opposed to those stated in the Performance Standards.  She further stated that Administrative staff or Center Directors need to be revisited in effort to use them as mentors/coaches and ensure that they are in the classrooms 50% of the  time doping classroom observation.  She went on to show me the grant applications that would be required if they decided to apply for the Detroit Head Start and Early Head  Start Grants. 

I  also spent approximately 30 minutes with Disability Specialist who is busy trying to reach her 10% of the program’s enrollment to be qualified for Special Education.  This is requirement of the Disability Content area in The Michigan area.  Therefore, she will need 147 children, she is currently at 47 children.  She stated that children who have medical conditions as asthma or breathing conditions cannot be counted as children who are in need of special needs services.  She stated that her department is in the process of conducting  Individual Education Plans (IEPs), tracking Brigances that fell below 50 percentile and preparing a workshop on Kindergarten Readiness for Special Needs parents in an effort to make the transition from the Head Start Program to the Public School System .  One of the reasons that the time that I have had the opportunity of spending with the Disability Specialist has been limited is because her content area is being audited by a Federal Review Team.  This entails specialists in the field ensuring that the federal guidelines are followed, that fiscal procedures are followed for delivering services and making purchases are followed as well as if the procedures for recordkeeping are in line with federal regulations and guidelines, better known as the Performance Standards.

From the time that I spent with the two professionals that I worked with, the rewards were priceless.  The insights that I gained were as follows:  I got a different perspective of the work that has to be done by the top tier of management in an agency.  The assistant director has to take the Child Outcomes data that she has implemented and make sure that it aligns with the system that will be implemented that will measure a child’s progress from the time that they entered the program .  Another area that will be affected is how the data will be placing more emphasis on getting the Michigan Head Start guideline to align with the federal guidelines to make the program more effective and meaningful for children and families.  Three  quote that I heard from one of the professionals that I worked with and found useful are as follows:  “In everything that you do, surround yourselves with the  FACE OF A CHILD”;  another one is “ need to be competitive to be the best version of ourselves”;  and finally  when you make big decisions, they must be based on information: data systems, reports…”,  the authors are unknown.  The time that I spent with the Disability Specialist, I have learned that the Special Needs Content Area is widely scrutinized because of poor or slow service delivery from the Local Education Authority (LLEA and their inability to reach their 10% goals.   She said that they will be meeting to try to rectify the situation.