RALEIGH – Gov. Josh Stein urged federal health officials Monday to preserve staffing, service and accountability standards as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers a sweeping rewrite of Head Start regulations.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams, Stein asked the department to retain federal staff-to-child ratios and group-size limits, along with standards governing comprehensive services, staff qualifications, compensation and professional development.
Stein also urged HHS to preserve program-duration and accountability requirements, language access and family-engagement provisions. He opposed reducing the current 15% ceiling on administrative costs to a uniform 5% limit.
The federal proposal, published Aug. 7, would rescind and replace the Head Start Program Performance Standards. HHS says the rewrite would reduce regulatory burden, give states and local programs more flexibility and remove more than 1,400 regulatory provisions. The proposal would shift authority over group sizes and staff-to-child ratios to states and reduce the administrative-cost cap from 15% to 5% of total approved program costs.
The rule remains a proposal, not a final change. The Federal Register notice says public comments are due Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Stein said he supports targeted efforts to eliminate duplicative administrative requirements when those changes do not weaken statutory protections or program quality. He asked HHS to consult governors, state agencies, tribal nations, Head Start programs, educators and families before issuing a final rule.
State Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green joined the appeal, saying many Head Start classrooms operate in public schools or alongside NC Pre-K programs and that staffing, schedule, health and family-support standards affect how prepared children are when they enter kindergarten.
The governor’s office said Head Start and Early Head Start serve more than 17,600 North Carolina children and bring more than $290 million in federal funds to local programs. Those figures are attributed to the governor’s release.
Stein’s letter is an advocacy action and does not itself change federal regulations or North Carolina program operations. HHS will decide whether and how to revise the proposal after the public-comment process.
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Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.