Tribal Head Start leaders can file funding-formula testimony through Oct. 6

Tribal governments running Head Start have until Oct. 6 to file written testimony on how the program's money is allocated, and can raise it at a consultation on Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m. Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon in Alaska. The virtual session is required under the Head Start Act and brings together OHS leadership and tribal-government leaders running Head Start and Early Head Start programs nationally, not Alaska alone. Tribal and Native nonprofit staff may attend as observers. Registration details are not yet released; the office takes testimony at [email protected].

Seventeen Head Start programs operate in Alaska, several run by tribal organizations including the Association of Village Council Presidents and Bristol Bay Native Association. They collectively received $62 million in federal funding in FY2023 and faced a 20% non-federal match. A 2022 Bipartisan Policy Center report, "Righting a Wrong," found federal programs for these families systematically underfunded, faulting flat set-asides over real child counts.