American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - Head Start Expansion

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The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Head Start (OHS), announces the availability of expansion grants under The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5). Approximately $6,823,772 is to be competitively awarded to current Head Start grantees for the purpose of expanding enrollment of low-income children and their families in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Wyoming, and Other Jurisdictions (Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Island of the United States, and the Republic of Palau). This expansion is only to increase the number of pre-school age children served in Head Start in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Wyoming, and Other Jurisdictions (Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Island of the United States, and the Republic of Palau). Future funding is dependent upon the availability of Federal Government funds. ACF solicits applications from existing federally funded Head Start agencies to compete for funds that are available to provide services to unserved children and families residing in the defined federally approved service areas or, as discussed below, nearby unserved areas. Each grantee currently has a defined, approved service area and may apply to serve additional low-income children in that area. In addition, grantees may propose to serve areas that are currently unserved as long as they can demonstrate they meet the statutory requirement to be a Head Start provider in that community; i.e. an agency that would be understood by the community as a local agency, "within a community"; i.e. an agency that has some presence in that community or the community is contiguous to its current service area and the community demonstrates its support for the applicant to be a Head Start provider in the community. Applicants proposing to both expand within their current service area and to establish a new program in an unserved area must submit separate applications. Successful applicants will be subject to reporting requirements consistent with The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and with current Head Start regulations.

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