Edward M. Kennedy: “I strongly agree with this move toward coordination and consolidation of the various Federal child care programs and…”

“I strongly agree with this move toward coordination and consolidation of the various Federal child care programs and look forward to continued bipartisan cooperation on its effort as we move forward on welfare reform. Given the great need for child care services for working poor families, we must do all we can to increase the availability and the efficiency of funding for programs targeted to these families. I want to make sure that we are clear that when we are talking about removing barriers to integration--we do not seek to in any way undermine the integrity of Head Start performance standards. The committee has acknowledged that these performance standards are essential to ensuring program quality and continued program success. What we are really talking about here is helping other community-based programs which receive Head Start funds to meet Head Start performance standards and eliminating administrative barriers that prevent coordination. These barriers include delays in payments which make providers with limited resources wait several months for reimbursement, the lack of contracts guaranteeing a certain number of slots and allowing for program planning, and conflicting reimbursement rates. These differing payments schemes make it exceedingly difficult to build linkages between Head Start and child care programs. I hope that we can begin to deal with these differences in a manner that is in the best interest in children.”