01.07.02e - Annual Self-Assessment Procedures

Annual Self-Assessment Procedures Policy Number and Last Update(01.07.02e/08-2015)

In April the grantee director trains delegate directors on the self-assessment procedures. This session is to be part of the annual directors' training, held for four days in Springfield. Directors consider the effectiveness of three alternatives for assessment tools, but do not make a decision at that time. The training will cover all phases of the new plan.

  1. Delegate directors train staff of their centers on the self-assessment procedures during each of their delegate pre-service training weeks, immediately preceding their opening dates (mid-May through mid-July).
  2. The DHS Board discusses the general plan for the self-assessment, adding their recommendations for the best tool and schedule, and approving the policy.
  3. The first Policy Council meeting of the season is held in June. Meetings always take place in Springfield because it is centrally located 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours from all centers. With Policy Council, the grantee director discusses with members: the purpose of the self-assessment, the self-assessment plan, the role of Council members in self-assessment, the tool to be used. The Policy Council will be requested to approve or disapprove the entire Self-Assessment Plan.
  4. Delegate directors present the self-assessment procedures at their August or September Board and Policy Committee meetings, discuss the process, and ask for volunteers to take part in the agency review. They contact community members, including staff of Region V Head Start programs, to request their participation.
  5. During August and September, delegate directors organize their self-assessment teams (staff, board members, parents, and community members), and provide them training on the tool, the policy, the Self-Assessment Plan, and the planning process. DHS staff sets dates for self-assessments, which may take place over the course of a 10-day period.
  6. Grantee staff leads the review of each delegate and partner, during September and October, the final months of the centers' seasons. They meet with each team before they begin the review, to reach a general agreement of the interpretation of the tool, to modify it if necessary and to assign segments for completion.
  7. When they have collected all data, reviewers meet to sum up their findings and recommend a determination of compliance. All review documents are sent to Springfield, where grantee staff consider them along with monitoring findings of the season, and issue a report within 10 working days to the delegate board, staff, and Policy Committee.
  8. Each delegate group meets to analyze the findings. Over the course of the next two months, delegate groups of staff, board members and parents each meet at their own centers to develop objectives and the steps they will take to resolve their own non-compliance issues. These objectives are part of their "Delegate Agency Annual Plans." (Thereafter, delegate directors report on the progress made in meeting these annual objectives, as part of their monthly reports to Boards, Policy Committees, and the grantee.) They may ask for technical assistance from the grantee at any time, and if they have issues which cannot be solved internally, they bring those up for discussion and solution at the yearly state-wide planning meeting, which is held every December in Springfield. This meeting is attended by delegate board members, staff persons and parents, along with grantee staff and Board members. If there are items of non-compliance which involve state-wide budget, policy, procedures or implementation, they are the subject of planning for program improvement for the next year. At this meeting are developed state-wide goals and objectives for the coming year.
  9. Each year DHS hosts an annual planning meeting in Springfield, attended by Board members, staff, and parents from all programs (see # 8). Results of the self-assessment are one of the subjects of deliberation of that committee, which formulates corresponding objectives and action steps. These become part of the grantee's annual program-improvement plan.
  10. Using a format similar to that of the delegates, the grantee director reports to each meeting of the DHS Board and the Policy Council the progress made toward accomplishment of the annual objectives (including those related to the self-assessment).