Service Area
The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) provided services through contractual delegate agreements with Four agencies in Illinois, serving the entire state and three counties of Indiana. The delegate agencies providing services July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024 were:
- Del Valle Migrant Head Start, in Oswego
- Embrace Life Child Care, in Edwards
- Migrant Education, in Cobden
- PerryAyz Foundation, In Rantoul
- Rainbow Learning, in Kankakee and Sheldon
Funding
The Head Start program was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, and supported by the Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Family and Community Services and by Illinois General Revenue through the Bureau of Quality Initiatives. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reimburses meal costs through the Child and Adult Care Food Program, administered by the Illinois State Board of Education.
| Funding Source |
Amount |
Percent of
Total Budget
|
| HHS/ACF/OHS |
$4,174,683 |
83% |
| Illinois General Revenue |
$757,201 |
15% |
| USDA |
$115,916 |
2% |
Budget Information
Ninety-eight percent of the total federal budget was allocated to delegate program operations, under the line item 6.f. contractual. Non-federal share was raised through General Revenue and private donations of goods, and services to delegate agencies.
| Line Item |
Proposed Budget |
Expenditures |
Percentage Spent |
| Travel |
$21,751.00 |
$14,881.00 |
68.42% |
| Contractual Delegates |
$4,094,683.00 |
$3,861,165.00 |
94.30% |
| Other contractual |
$58,249.00 |
$70,653.00 |
121.29% |
| Total |
$4,174,683.00 |
$3,946,699.00 |
94.54% |
| Funding Source |
Match Proposed on Budget |
Actual Collected |
Match Percentage |
| Grantee IDHS Salaries & Illinois General Revenue |
$470,261.00 |
$748,389.00 |
100.54% |
| 3rd Party Contractual Delegates (In-Kind) |
$213,743.00 |
$179,750.00 |
84.10% |
| Total |
$684,004.00 |
$928,139.00 |
135.69% |
Enrollment
Families eligible for MSHS must earn 51% or more of their income from employment in agriculture and must be doing agricultural work at the time of enrollment, or shortly thereafter. Families must verify that their primary income is from agricultural labor. Illinois Migrant & Seasonal Head Start defines "agricultural labor" to include: fruit & vegetables, mushroom growing, flower farming, plant or tree nurseries, greenhouses, forestry, orchards, sod farming, grain/corn storage facilities, stock, dairy, poultry, livestock, fish, fur-farming; employment connected to fruit, vegetables, and grains packaging and canning, cultivating the soil, raising, detasseling and harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, orchards, dairying, bees/apiaries; including the raising, shearing, feeding, processing, training, and caring for livestock; swine, sheep, beef cattle, ponies, or horses, and poultry, fish, and fur-bearing animals and wildlife. Not eligible are landscaping and grounds-keeping.
Parents must furnish, as proof of annual income, one of the following: Income Tax Form 1040 or 1040A, W-2 forms from every source of income, pay stubs with year-to-date total, or written statements from employers. Homeless families who do not have documents can be enrolled immediately, giving them sufficient time to obtain the documents, if possible.
Centers operate on schedules that accommodate parents' work hours and weeks: from eight weeks in one location to seven months in another. In fiscal year 2024, served 273 children from 201 families. A total of 20 children with disability service plans: 7-IFSP and 13-IEPs. The average monthly enrollment was 41.80%.
Audits
The audit of IDHS had no findings related to the Head Start program. Independent audits of each of the delegates found no material weaknesses.
Medical and Dental Examinations
Staff made every effort to make sure to continue in the transporting of and/or make arrangements for children to receive screenings. Immunizations, Physicals, Well-Baby Checks, Hemoglobin, Lead and TB tests were up to date and tracked effectively. Dental exams, cleanings and fluoride treatments completed within HSPPS required time frame.
Medical
All delegates followed the EPSDT schedule from Illinois. As reported in the Office of Head Start's 2024 Program Information Report (PIR), 270 children were up to date on a schedule of age-appropriate preventive and primary health care according to State's EPSDT at the end of the enrollment year. These included screenings for tuberculosis, height and weight, hemoglobin, and lead. The children that did not receive all screenings and physicals were due to leaving the center within 30 days of enrollment. Thirteen children were diagnosed with a chronic condition of which eleven received medical treatment for it; Eighty-three percent of the children are up to date on all immunizations, or have received all immunizations possible at this time, appropriate for their age; Sixty-eight percent of the preschool-aged-children enrolled in 2023-24 year had healthy weight for child's age and sex; thirteen percent were classified as Overweight, 15% as Obese, and 4% were underweight.
Dental
Dental screenings were provided at each site by the Migrant Community Health Partnerships.
Of the total children ages 3 to 5 years-old, 100% had the formal exam completed; 38 of these children needed dental treatment, of which 15 completed it. Reasons for the children that did not complete the exam were due to: No dental care available in local area (5); Appointment scheduled for future date (17); and, three children left the program before their appointment date. The children also had cleaning and fluoride treatment completed.
Health Dept's Wellness on Wheels visited one center to offer health screenings, Narcan training and administer COVID vaccinations for all interested staff, parents, and community members.
Parent Involvement Activities
Each delegate agency elected a Parent Policy Committee, which made decisions at the local level, and sent representatives to the state-wide Policy Council. Throughout the working season, the Council meets monthly in Springfield to carry out the shared governance of the program with the IDHS Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Advisory Board. Parents take part in planning goals and objectives for program improvement and approve the federal funding application.
Programs offered activities and education based on families' interests, and requirements of the Office of Head Start:
- G.E.D. instruction
- English as a second language classes
- Substance-abuse prevention
- Money management information
- Intergenerational literacy sessions
- Be Strong Families Illinois Parent Cafes
- Prevention of child abuse and domestic violence training.
Parents also participated in inter-generational reading activities, using books from MSHS lending libraries and visiting public libraries. Overall, forty-four percent of Delegates' Policy Committee members are fathers and forty-three percent of Policy Council members are fathers.
Preparing Children
Teaching staff qualifications
Centers struggled to hire new education staff, while others struggled to retain those that they had. However, all teaching staff members are Head Start qualified and all delegate education coordinators have bachelors' degrees in early childhood education-78% had a Baccalaureate degree and 22% had an associate degree. eight percent of infant-toddler teachers had a Baccalaureate degree, 33% had an associate degree and 58% had a CDA. Three staff received their CDA certification this season; One staff's CDA was renewed this season; And one bus aid/teacher assistant is working towards a CDA that will be completed by spring.
All staff who hold a Bachelor, Associate, or CDA in Early Childhood, were fully supported financially by the program towards receiving their credentials and/or degrees.
Coaching
All delegates continue to offer Practice Based Coaching (PBC) or Coaching using MyTeachstone to their staff. Staff can choose their coaching method. In 2023-24, one PBC consultant coached 2 teaching staff, 5 coaches provided individual coaching to 12 teaching staff received coaching through MyTeachstone Direct Coaching which received, among them, 35 hours of coaching each month-averaging between 1-2 hours each. Seven additional staff used MyTeachstone for their coaching program. Teaching staff using MyTeachstone completed an additional 5 hours of self-directed study. Coaches using MyTeachstone completed 70 minutes of recommended coaching with an additional 4 hours of self-directed study. Overall staff and supervisors were content with the results of both methods.
Curricula
Illinois Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (IMSHS) use the Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos in its Infant toddler classrooms and Creative Curriculum® for Preschoolers in its Preschool classrooms. Curricula chosen by IMSHS contain both resources guiding interest area and room preparation as well as instructional content reflecting the most current research. Curricula has been recognized to meet the HSPPS and are evidence-based early childhood curricula which include empirically based scope and sequences grounded in developmental theory.
Delegates complement the curricula with the following: to support the children's language development, the teaching staff will use Planned Language Approach strategies-particularly the Big Five-for all children; to support fitness and healthy development, the teaching staff will use strategies from "I am Learning, I am moving"; and, to support self-discipline the teaching staff will use "Positive Discipline" strategies.
Education Coordinators do monthly classroom observations to evaluate that Creative Curriculum® is implemented with fidelity in each classroom. Results are analyzed and used to plan the appropriate course work, training, coaching, and/or technical assistance for staff development.
Screening and Assessment
Ages and Stages Questionnaires® (ASQ) developmental screening are used to identify concerns in children's development and ASQ-SE is used for the identification of social-emotional challenges. Both ASQ and ASQ-SE have been studied extensively and these show high reliability, internal consistency, sensitivity, and specificity.
Galileo® G-3 Assessments are used in all the classrooms to assess children's developmental levels and ongoing progress. The assessments are aligned to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (HSELOF), Illinois Early Learning Standards and Illinois Birth-to-Three Early Learning Guidelines.
Second Language Learners
The grantee understands that it is essential that staff understand that development is influenced by children's culture and linguistic backgrounds and temperaments, among other factors; therefore, planning of learning activities, daily schedules, and the teaching practices must be premeditated by this-If not, appropriate training or coaching must be offered to staff. It is important to state that Infant and toddler classrooms will use the child's home language to enhance or promote development. English, however, not required, can be introduced at minimal levels. In preschool, English will be increased to promote higher levels of proficiency and developmental progress measured by the Galileo G3 English Acquisition Scale. Spanish is the primary language for 79% percent of the children enrolled in MSHS programs. For 17% the primary language is English, and Turkish for the four percent. Other language spoken at home for some of our Guatemalan children is Q'eqchi', this is spoken along with Spanish. However, over 50% of the children are bilingual.
Education Services for Children with Disabilities
We served 13 children with IEPs and 7 children with IFSPs; of which, 14 were diagnosed the previous year and six were diagnosed during the program year. All received special education services, mostly at the centers with a few still being provided virtually. All children above have speech and language or other developmental delays.
2023-2024 School Readiness Data
The IMSHS selected a broad-range School Readiness 5-year Goal to allow for the yearly objectives to address the domains of Approaches to Learning, Social and Emotional Development, Language and Literacy, Cognition, and Perceptual, Motor and Physical development. IMSHS goal and objectives are aligned with HSELOF, Illinois State Early Learning Standards and Illinois Birth-to-Three Early Learning Guidelines. The Planning Committee (grantee staff, parents, delegate staff and board members) review children's outcomes data and decide on goals for the following grant year.
In the 2023-24 season, learning activities were provided outdoors as often as possible. Teaching staff completed parent conferences either in person or virtual. Infants and toddlers (8-24 months) had an overall developmental level average gain of 53 points and learned between 19%-28% of the capabilities that have been mapped to our school readiness (SR) plan. Children between 2-3 years, had an overall developmental level average gain of 59 points and knew an average of 24% of the capabilities that have been mapped to SR. Preschoolers had an overall developmental level average gain of 43 points and knew an average of 15% of the SR capabilities.
