About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-06-767R 1 (2006-07-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptatoo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Aountability * Integrity * RelEabity United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 July 27, 2006 Congressional Requesters Subject: Head Start: Progress and Challenges in Implementing Transportation Regulations The leading cause of death for children ages 3 to 7 is motor vehicle traffic crashes. Head Start, a federal early care and education program run by local grantees and targeted at low-income children, currently serves approximately 900,000 children, and transports many of them to and from Head Start centers across the country. While not required to do so, many Head Start grantees offer transportation as a way to make Head Start more widely available to the eligible population, especially very poor children. To address concerns about transporting children safely, the 1992 Head Start Improvement Act directed the Office of Head Start,' housed within the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to develop transportation regulations to ensure the safety and effectiveness of transportation services made available to children by Head Start grantees. Head Start issued these regulations in 2001. Grantees were required to meet most provisions of the transportation regulations shortly after their issuance in January 2001; however, the compliance date for the provisions regarding passenger restraints and bus monitors was 3 years later, and the provision regarding vehicles was 5 years later. In addition, grantees had two opportunities-in 2004 and in 2005-to delay or seek a waiver from implementing the restraint and monitor provisions by requesting extensions through the Office of Head Start.2 Further, when grantees annually renew their funding, the transportation regulations also permit them to request a waiver' for good cause from any 1At the time of our briefing in May 2006, the Office of Head Start was called the Head Start Bureau. Hence, the briefing slides enclosed with this report refer to the office by its former name. 2The effective compliance dates for the restraint and monitor provisions were first extended via an interim final rule published in 2004. Then, Public Law 109-149, passed in 2005, extended the compliance date for the vehicle provision to June 30, 2006, and also allowed the Secretary of HHS to waive the restraint and monitor requirements through September 30, 2006. The vehicle, restraint, and monitor provisions are effective until these respective dates or the date of enactment of a statute that authorizes appropriations for fiscal year 2006 to carry out the Head Start Act, whichever date is earlier. Head Start has issued guidance stating that waivers granted for restraints and monitors would cover the remainder of a grantee's program year, thus making that date the effective compliance date for a grantee. In June 2006, Pub.L. No. 109-234 changed the compliance date for vehicles to December 30, 2006. 3 The general waiver authority is outlined under 45 C.F.R. § 1310.2(c). GAO-06-767R Head Start Transportation Page 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most