A new era began this week with the city-run, federally funded Head Start program. After three decades of contracting with Parent Child, Inc., or PCI, to run the program, the city farmed the Head Start program out to several different agencies, including school districts.
It was a move that was not totally embraced by parents who had availed themselves of Head Start services, but the city assured all that the bottom line would be that children in the program would get a higher quality learning environment than had been provided under PCI.
One of the concerns that Head Start parents had when it became apparent that the City of San Antonio was going to change Head Start providers was what hours would Head Start be available to working parents.
In response to the question, “Will the hours or days of service change with the new providers?” the city answered in a letter to parents and on the city's Head Start Web site, “The City of San Antonio and its new agencies will provide at least the same level of days and hours received by current Head Start families. Some families may find that additional hours of care will be available with the new providers.”
That has not happened, according to an Aug. 19 story by Express-News reporter Lindsay Kastner.
Some parents received letters just days before school was to start informing them that their Head Start centers would only be open from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
Kastner quoted Family Service Association CEO Nancy Hard, whose centers are among those requiring parents to pick their children up by 3:30 p. m., as saying, “Head Start funds are only allowed to be used for extended day care when all other sources and all other options have been exhausted. Head Start funding is there for that 6 hour day and that's where that priority is.”
While it is true that Head Start is an early childhood/school readiness program and not a child care program, the reality is that most of the parents with children enrolled in Head Start work and are likely to work at the lowest paid jobs in the city, without the luxury of surplus vacation days, annual leave or flexible scheduling that many professional workers enjoy.
The question is, did the city deliberately mislead Head Start parents when it promised that it and its new agencies would provide at least the same level of days and hours already in existence? After all, City Council members and department heads were already well aware that there would be a budget shortfall this fiscal year.