Conversion of Enrollment Slots from Head Start to Early Head Start (HS2EHS)

2020 - 2025

Converting enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start (i.e., shifting funding from services for Head Start preschool-age children to Early Head Start services for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers) necessitates strategic planning and the careful development and implementation of new processes to ensure high quality service delivery tailored to the unique needs of pregnant women, infants, and toddlers and delivered in accordance with the Head Start Program Performance Standards.

This project examines how and why Head Start grantees prepare for and engage in enrollment conversions and aims to identify facilitators and barriers to the provision of high quality Early Head Start services that meet community needs.

In particular, this project aims to address research questions, such as:

  • What are the characteristics and features of grantees that convert enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start?
  • What are grantees’ rationales and/or motivations for converting enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start?
  • How do grantees prepare for and convert enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start?
  • How do grantees leverage data to support the enrollment conversion process and assess community needs?
  • How do grantees determine if and how they are meeting community needs?
  • What are the facilitators and barriers to conversion of enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start?
  • What are the facilitators and barriers to high quality service delivery after conversion of enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start?

The project is exploring how answers to the above questions may vary based upon factors, such as:

  • History or experience implementing Early Head Start;
  • The proportion of enrollment slots or classrooms undergoing conversion to Early Head Start;
  • Community characteristics and need (e.g., enrollment supply and/or demand, availability of public pre-K or other early care and education programs); or
  • Program characteristics (e.g., program option(s) offered, organizational capacity, program size, or characteristics of children and families served).

The project is conducted by Urban Institute in partnership with MEF Associates.

Point(s) of contact: Jenessa Malin and Krystal Bichay-Awadalla

Information collections related to this project have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under OMB #0970-0513. Related materials are available at the Conversion of Enrollment Slots from Head Start to Early Head Start  page on RegInfo.gov.

To access the information collections (E.g. interviews, surveys, protocols), click on View Information Collection (IC) List. Click on View Supporting Statement and Other Documents to access other supplementary documents.

Related Resources

This OPRE-funded snapshot describes the most common data sources cited by Head Start grant recipients to demonstrate availability of early care and education services and need for infant, toddler, and preschool-age services in applications to convert enrollment slots from Head Start to center-based Early Head Start.

Explore this OPRE-funded brief which describes the motivations Head Start grant recipients cite in applications to covert enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head to supply infant-and-toddler care.

Explore this OPRE funded brief that describes the characteristics of data sources and data points referenced in Head Start grant recipient enrollment conversion applications.

Explore this OPRE-funded brief which describes the staff qualifications of Head Start grant recipients that converted enrollment slots and presents a summary of strategies grant recipients planned to employ to ensure staff had the appropriate qualifications and competencies needed to serve Early Head Start children and families.

Explore this brief about staff turnover and retention among Head Start grant recipients that converted enrollment slots.

Explore this OPRE-funded brief that examines the first descriptive picture of grant recipients that converted enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start between 2019 and 2021.