Groups reject provision in Senate Head Start bill
http://govexec.com/dailyfed/1003/103103sz1.htmA diverse group of antipoverty, religious and liberal groups this week condemned a provision in the Senate version of legislation to reauthorize the 38-year-old Head Start program and urged senators to amend the bill when it comes up for a vote.
In a statement issued on Oct. 30, Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, a liberal advocacy group in Washington, said that a provision in the Senate bill requiring the academic testing of Head Start's preschool-age pupils was developmentally inappropriate. Forty organizations signed onto Edelman's statement, including the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the Episcopal Church USA, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Head Start, a program run by the Administration for Children and Families at the Health and Human Services Department, provides a range of academic, medical and developmental services to about 900,000 low-income children under the age of five.
"The Senate should reject proposals that establish a set of outcomes for children that are not informed by research or science," Edelman said. "They should continue to oppose any inappropriate testing of young children and make sure that such test results are not used to determine program funding."
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