An Act To Preserve Head Start and Child Care Services

Sec. 1. Recipient of funds. Funds appropriated in this Act must be distributed among the State's federally recognized nontribal Head Start grantees.

Sec. 2. Use of funds. Funds appropriated in this Act must be used to fund services for pregnant women and for children from birth to 5 years of age in accordance with the federally required community needs assessment performed by each of the State's federally recognized nontribal Head Start grantees.

Sec. 3. Distribution of General Fund support for Head Start programs. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, all funds appropriated in fiscal year 2014-15 for Head Start programs in this Act must be distributed using a base allocation and a supplemental allocation as follows.

1. The base allocation must be distributed on a per agency basis. The base allocation must be divided into 13 equal shares. Each of the State's 11 nontribal Head Start programs must receive a single share, with the exception of the Penquis Community Action Program, Inc. and the Community Concepts, Inc. Head Start agencies, which each receive 2 shares of the base allocation.

2. The supplemental allocation must be distributed among the 11 nontribal Head Start programs in proportion to the number of children from birth to 5 years of age in poverty in their respective service areas in relation to the number of children from birth to 5 years of age in poverty statewide.

3. The base allocation is set at $1,740,000. The supplemental allocation is that amount of General Fund support that exceeds the base allocation.

Sec. 4. Appropriations and allocations. The following appropriations and allocations are made.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF (FORMERLY DHS)

Head Start 0545

Initiative: Appropriates funds to restore the reduction to Head Start program funds made in fiscal year 2012-13. These funds will allow the State to maximize child care development fund block grants to provide child care vouchers.

GENERAL FUND	2013-14	2014-15
All Other	$0	$2,000,000
GENERAL FUND TOTAL	$0	$2,000,000

summary

This bill provides for the allocation of funding among Maine's 11 nontribal Head Start programs based on a formula that provides a base allocation to each program and distributes all remaining funding based on the number of children in poverty in each program's service area. The bill also provides a $2,000,000 appropriation to state Head Start programs in fiscal year 2014-15, fully replacing the cut that was made in fiscal year 2012-13. These funds will allow the State to maximize child care development fund block grants to provide child care vouchers.