Enhancing the Reach and Effectiveness of American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Programs

Mathematica provided recommendations to the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Office of Head Start (OHS) for enhancing the reach and effectiveness of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Head Start programs.

“The Office of Head Start plays a critical role in supporting early childhood education for Native American children and their families by providing resources, guidance, and funding for Tribal communities,” wrote Mathematica. “Our response addresses how OHS can better support Tribal programs in implementing culturally grounded practices, strengthening family and community engagement, addressing workforce challenges, and ensuring sustainable program operations—all while upholding Tribal sovereignty.”

Mathematica’s comments came in response to OHS’s request for information on AI/AN Head Start programs. The Head Start program aims to promote school readiness by providing preschool and early education programs alongside comprehensive health, education, nutrition, socialization, and other developmental services for children from birth to age 5, pregnant women, and their families.

Specifically, Mathematica’s recommendations include:

• Allow more flexibility in eligibility processes for AI/AN Head Start programs to account for complex family dynamics and non-traditional living arrangements, such as kinship care or multigenerational households.
• Promote flexibility in program design while streamlining the approval process for locally designed options, especially for small or rural programs that might face additional administrative burdens.
• Provide further flexibility to braid together federal early childhood funds.
• Facilitate more coordination between state systems and Tribal programs, ensuring that state policies do not create unnecessary barriers for Tribal programs.
• Streamline the waiver process for programs that struggle to meet the nonfederal match requirement and offer more guidance on how to seek alternative funding sources or in-kind contributions to meet the match.

Mathematica staff who are Tribal citizens prepared the recommendations, which draw on the organization’s experience providing training and technical assistance for Tribal early childhood development programs, promoting Tribal sovereignty in federal programs, supporting Tribal Nations in their self-determination toward culturally relevant curricula and language revitalization efforts, and promoting innovation within existing flexibilities in program design.