ACF Industry Day_Transcript.docx

HHS: ACF Industry Day 23 08/15/19 ACF Industry Day

>> Muriel Richardson: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the very first Office of Head Start Training and Technical Assistance industry day. Before we begin, I'd like to sort of give you an overview of our purpose and the reason that we had decided to hold this special event. The government, and specifically the Office of Head Start, would like to be able to determine industry capabilities, identify potential resources, and receive industry feedback on its upcoming solicitation for training and technical assistance.

This solicitation comprises of 12 awards, one for each ACF regional. These contracts provide local program Head Start grantees with TA to improve the capacity of local programs and to deliver services in the priority areas described in the Head Start Act, and you will learn a lot more about the Head Start program and the T/TA national system in a few minutes when we have our guest speakers coming to present. As a reminder, just a couple of housekeeping items. This session is being recorded. There will be a Q&A session after the presentation, and the Q&A will be posted on FedBizOpps.

So, today's agenda comprises of our welcoming remarks. And from 9:15 a.m. to 9:45 a.m., the Office of Head Start will be presenting its PowerPoint. From 9:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., we'll open it up for Q&A. Now, we have index cards available to you if you prefer to submit your questions in writing. You may also submit them verbally. And you see the gentleman standing with index cards in the front row here.

Afterwards, we will open up the floor for meeting with you individually. We have all 12 regions represented here today. We have CORs and federal staff from every single region, so if you have particular interest in a region, please reach out to these folks. Ask them your questions. We also have handouts for you which provide sort of a snapshot overview of the programs that we serve and the states in which we serve them.

So, we will be joined today by Sharon Yandian, who's the director of the Comprehensive Services and TA; Patricia McMann, the TA manager. We also have with us Darryl Grant, who is the acquisition management services customer liaison. He is with the Program Support Office, which is our cognizant contracting office. And we will also be joined by phone -- Allyson Brown, who is the small business specialist for the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, will be available to respond to questions. So, at this time, I'd like to invite Sharon Yandian and Pat McMahon to present on the Office of Head Start and the TA system.

>> Sharon Yandian: Good morning.

>> Multiple Speakers: Good morning.

>> Sharon Yandian: Thank you so much for coming. Patricia, would you like to stand with me?

>> Patricia McMahon: [unintelligible]

>> Sharon Yandian: Okay, great.

>> Patricia McMahon: Do you want me to stand with you?

>> Sharon Yandian: No, I don't think it's necessary. Okay, anyway, we want to have a little fun this morning and talk with you a little bit. As Muriel shared, you're going to have a wonderful opportunity to talk with the folks who actually are experts in the regions in which you may be interested sitting around the table. So, what I'm going to do in the next brief amount of time is provide an overview of the national landscape so that when you get that opportunity to speak in the region, you'll have that context, and many of you may already have that context.

I also, before we get started, wanted to remind you that I think in the announcement the website for ACF was available. And on that website, it also connects you to the ECLKC, which is where you'll find a wonderful array of materials and resources on Head Start. So, you just need to put into Google "ECLKC," and it will come up for you. And so, just to get us started -- and I see it's working just fine. So, you know, we are so very proud of the work that we all do on behalf of children and families in Head Start, and you may know that it started in the War on Poverty.

The Office of Head Start at the time was in OEO, and I've had the amazing opportunity to meet some of the architects of Head Start who are still living and learn from them about those early years, which started with an eight-week summer program for children who -- and families living in poverty to kind of get them ready for their entry into school. And so, you know, there are many tenets from the early years that are still around, and that's the beauty, I think, of -- many of the beauties of Head Start. But one is the federal-to-local nature.

And so, as you think about the regional structure that you'll be learning about more, we really honor the federal-to-local relationship, and that communities know best about what they need for children and family in the community. So, that is a bit of the history. And as you can see, that is the focus. Parents are the primary and the first teachers -- that is another tenet that has been around from the beginning -- and that we need to be holistic about the work that we do with children and families.

That it isn't just about what happens in the classroom or that learning environment, of course, which is extremely important, but we really need to think about, what does the child need as it relates to dental services, health services. And so, that's a little bit of the foundation, and as you can see there, the source is, as Muriel cited earlier, the Head Start Act there. And so, the purpose; you know, the purpose of Head Start really is to ready children and families for school and in life, and it gives that opportunity early on for the possibility of seeing if there's catching anything early.

In many cases, as we know, children who live in poverty are coming to school, to programs, hungry. They are coming with dental issues. They're coming with wonderful family supports. We honor the families; they know what is best for their children. And -- but the opportunity to perhaps do a vision screening, which is required, to make sure that the child enters school with glasses seems very -- may seem very simple to some, but really gets children started, their trajectory into school, well on their way.

And so, the authorizing purpose of Head Start is school readiness, and that's very, you know, broad. We have it defined here, thinking about the social, emotional development, which is extremely important, as well as the educational aspect. And then, of course, again, the comprehensive services as we described, those supports for the health, and supports for families who may need extra supports based on what may be happening in their lives at that time. And that's the role of the program. Did I miss anything so far?

>> Female Speaker: No.

>> Sharon Yandian: Good.

>> Female Speaker: Everything is good.

>> Sharon Yandian: Okay. All right, we wanted to talk just a little bit -- again, you're going to be -- when you have the opportunity to walk around, you'll be learning a little bit more about the funding level at the regional level and the numbers of children and et cetera. But here is just a snapshot of the -- you know, we're now at $10 billion, and, you know, additional funds were awarded for several things this year and last year that you may or may not have heard about in addition to the cost-of-living adjustment, which isn't always a given.

The -- we had a very large expansion of the Head Start childcare partnerships, which is that opportunity for the Head Start program to collaborate with a childcare partner in the community to increase the quality of childcare and bring that comprehensive services nature to the childcare in the community, which is a wonderful opportunity for both the Head Start program and the childcare program in the community to grow together.

We have also additional funds to continue to expand -- some programs are part-day, part-year, and we are moving towards more full-day, full-year programming, and that's what those funds were for, as well as improvements for health and safety. We have -- you know, I see we don't have a lot of time, but, you know, one of the big areas that programs are challenged by is facilities. Some of the facilities are very old; others are not set up right. And so, facilities is a big area that we think about when we think about health and safety. All right.

So, the program performance standards. Very important; a little light reading for you, you know, and even more light reading is the preamble, which is describing the rationale for why we, you know, decided to have that particular standard. It's actually very interesting to read. But the program performance standards; again, many, many of the standards and the tenets have been around a long time, but in the past three years -- I think in 2016, we revised and streamlined the performance standards that programs are required to follow, and hence, folks who work on the regional contracts need to understand very well.

And as you can see, you know, it's a road map to what we believe is quality early childhood programming. And they really don't tell you how to do things; they tell you what is required, and that is the beauty, I think, of the standards, because, you know, as we know, programs are at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, they're in Hawaii, they're in Mississippi, but it shouldn't matter if you go to a program. The same performance standards should be in place. It may -- how they're implementing the standard may look a little different, but you should -- we should feel confident that the standards are the same across anywhere that you go.

I think that's all about the -- those are available on the ECLKC as well. You could really spend a lot of time on there because there's videos. Right? There's handouts. You know, when we had the standards in 2016 it was -- it had been a long time that we had new standards, and so that was -- I think the field is in a good place now, but we had quite an effort that involved the regional TA folks and the national centers that you'll hear about later from Pat. So, a little bit -- just a little bit about the demographics.

Again, I think it'll be more interesting when you are having the opportunity to talk with our federal staff, you know, at the tables as it relates to the particular regions you may be interested in. But we are in nearly every community and territory; we have -- I think we are 26 sovereign nations, or we're in 26 states; and we have also a migrant and seasonal Head Start program, which is our Region 12. That is in -- Debbie is going to be upset if I don't get -- I think it's 39 states, so it cuts across regions. So, that's a uniqueness there.

And let me see what I wanted to -- in the -- within the grantees we have lots of different types of programs. They're community action agencies, school districts, for-profits, nonprofits, and, I think, again, every region is a little different in this stead, and you can get more information about that profile at the -- when you have that opportunity to talk at the regional level. In here we have -- we haven't talked much -- when Head Start first started it was mostly what we consider the older children, the four-year-olds, three to five-year-olds, and in 1994 we expanded to Early Head Start.

We still are not serving nearly enough of infants and toddlers in the country, but we do have -- and I think when you go to the tables, you'll hear the breakout of the number of Early Head Start programs and number of children in Head Start programs. But we serve in different environments; mostly, you can see, in your -- what you would consider the traditional center-based. We also have home-based services as well as family childcare homes. So, because we don't have a lot of time today, I'm not going to talk about what each of those are, but there's plenty of information on the ECLKC. Right?

So, you can see here we are a pretty large employer -- 379,000 local staff -- and I think one of the beautiful things about Head Start is so many of the staff were former Head Start parents, and so that is really quite a treasure for programs who have that opportunity to not only perhaps work with parents and partner with them, and then they move their way and want to work in the program. And so, you'll find that there's a lot of very dedicated folks around the country who work in Head Start. Many of them were parents first.

And we have a lot of volunteers. Again, we have a theme here: 71 percent were current or former Head Start parents. So, let me see what else I wanted to say about that slide. I think that's it. So, here's just a little information about, you know, the numbers that we serve. You see we have 40 percent of children who were age four, 35 percent are age three. We do have -- I don't remember exactly the statistic, but many children returning. So, if they come at age three, they were also at age 4. It might be a third; that sounds about right.

And we have a large of number of children who speaks languages other than English, which is a very important tenet. That also finds its way back to the beginning, how important it is to honor, respect the culture and language of children and families and understand who they are and who their families are in order to be able to serve them in a way that is -- makes sense. And that -- you know, that also brings lots to discuss, not right now, in terms of the design and the educational services and services for families, how we support children learning English and how we continue to support the home language as they move into school.

We have a requirement in Head Start that 10 percent of the children enrolled in Head Start programs must be children with disabilities, and you see here that we are exceeding that at this point. We have 13 percent nationwide of children with various disabilities. And right now, we also can tell you that five percent of the children are experiencing homelessness with their families, and that's something that programs have been working very hard on.

With, you know, over a million children under six homeless, many of the programs and some of the current TA providers have been working very hard with programs to help them figure out how to best reach homeless families and how they might be served in Head Start programs. So, that's an important number. We hope to see that go up a little bit. And then another important statistic is that most parents work fulltime. Sometimes people think that, you know, Head Start is, you know -- Head Start programs cannot charge a fee.

Children -- families must meet the poverty guidelines. But you can see here many parents are working fulltime, and this is quite a statistic. If you have children yourself, you know, in the older grades and elementary school, you know, 95 percent of the parents attend parent-teacher conferences, and that is quite a compliment to the families and to the programs who engender that relationship and to really understand how important it is to learn, for families to share about their child, and for programs to help them see how their child is progressing and what they need to continue to do at home.

And we have a lot of volunteers also, so that is also amazing, is it not? Okay, let's see. So, I'm going to turn it over to Pat, who is going to talk to you a little bit about our T/TA system. And so, the -- I'm going to leave you with this slide where at the top is the regional network, which makes up one part of our -- very important part of our system, and then Pat's going to talk to you about the rest, and I'm going to sit down. Thank you.

Patricia McMahon: Sharon, do you want to do Q&A about your part now, or wait till I'm through?

>> Sharon Yandian: I think we can wait.

>> Patricia McMahon: Okay.

>> Sharon Yandian: It's just this little arrow. Do you want me to operate that for you?

>> Patricia McMahon: No, just show me the little arrow.

>> Sharon Yandian: Just right there.

>> Patricia McMahon: Okay, got it.

>> Sharon Yandian: Okay.

>> Patricia McMahon: Hello, everyone. At the risk of being really redundant, we're really happy to have so many people with us today and looking forward to conversations that you'll have with our friends at the regional offices. So, Sharon mentioned earlier that one of the things we're really proud of in Head Start is our federal-to-local nature, but we're also really proud of the fact that our office, which is the central office here, really has a really wonderful relationship with our 12 regional offices, and that's particularly important when we're looking at T/TA, I think.

T/TA in Head Start has three components, and they've -- we have funded them, and we oversee them in a way that each fits into the other. As is true with so much of what we do, we've got regulations guiding what happens and what doesn't. So, Head Start -- as Sharon said a few minutes ago, our funding is approximately $10 billion right at this time, which is a pretty good chunk of change, right? The Head Start Act lays out how much of that allocation has to be allocated to training and technical assistance.

And so, the act says that for whatever the allocation is at a particular point in time, T/TA cannot be funded at less than 2.5 percent of the total allocation or more than 3 percent of the total allocation. And in our office, we meet periodically to make sure that if we've gotten additional funds, we are continuing to look at the allocation for TA and decide if we need to allocate more. So, the Act also says that in addition to not less than 2.5 or more than 3 percent, it tells us some -- how that has to be allocated.

So, out of that money, at least 50 percent of all the money must go to local grantees, and they have the ability to take a look at their program and say, "Gee, this is what we need most right now," and to purchase it with those funds. Then the Act says, okay, so we -- you've allocated 50 percent of the funds. In addition, at least 25 percent of the remaining funds has to go to what is now our regional T/TA network, and that's what you all are here to hear more about today, I think. The remaining funds then go to a number of things, but in our case, we have funded what -- four national centers which have become increasingly important in our TA system.

So, the TA system basically works, starting with the four national centers, and for those of you who aren't longtime Head Starters, one is the National Center on Development Teaching and Learning, and they do what the name implies, and they do -- they're -- they do a lot of workforce related to teacher training and development, educational managers coaching, as our new performance standards that Sharon referred require that we have coaches within individual programs. So, the Center on Development, Teaching, and Learning has been working extensively with those coaches and with the local programs.

We have a Center on Health and Wellness that handles much of what Sharon also described in terms of looking at physical development, health and safety, helping us think about nutrition, about the kind of practices teachers and families need in order to send children off in good health. We have a Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement because from our perspective what's most important is parents. They will move on with their children while we will not.

And so, we have done a lot of work with that center to help equip all of our T/TA specialists, the regional offices, and the local programs with strategies and approaches for working with families and communities to enhance children's progress and development. And then, last but not least, we have a Center on Program Management and Fiscal Operations because we have -- what do we have, Sharon, about 1,600 programs now? So, those programs -- some of them are very large organizations and have a very strong management and fiscal base, and others not so much.

So, this center is -- their mandate is to develop resources, training, et cetera, to work with those local programs. Centers do not work directly with local grantees; that's where our regional office T/TA network comes. And all of -- I don't know, can you all wave who are with the regional network? Oh, come on, there's more than three people. They're usually not in -- there you go. You're seeing a whole lot of hands, right [laughs]? So, those are the folks that you will meet as you go around to the individual tables.

Those are the federal staff who are responsible for oversight of the regional contracts. We do not handle them out of this office for a lot of reasons. One is that we're way too big and way too spread out, and we do not know grantees in the same way that the regions do. So, the contracts that you are here to begin learning about today, in some cases, are under -- are awarded to the regions and run under their auspices. Sharon, anything you would add to this piece?

>> Sharon Yandian: [inaudible]

>> Patricia McMahon: Yeah, I think -- we have -- over the years, with the regional T/TA network, we used to do a lot of training of staff out there, and we have tried to move more intensely toward ongoing technical assistance because we know, as do all of you, that what leads to change is not one-shot training, but really more intensive work with grantees. You will find as you go around that one of our challenges is that even though we have a pretty good amount of money, we don't have enough to put as many people in the field as we would like.

So, we have somewhere between three and four hundred people that cover the country, and we work really hard to try and figure out how we can maximize the work that they're capable of doing. So, this is kind of a quick overview of that again. I think what is new, perhaps, on this slide is the fact that while the national centers operate under cooperative agreements, the regional T/TA network -- those 12 organizations are contracts, which, again, is required by the act, so we have not had the flexibility to look at other funding mechanisms.

When we look at the overall purpose of the T/TA network, as Sharon said, it really -- the reason for our existence is to help increase the quality of services delivered to children and families, and that remains the overall goal, whether it's a national center or it's one of the 12 regional T/TA contracts or it's the individual grantees themselves using that 50 percent of the funding. Everything else exists to support that so that the national centers who conduct a lot of training and technical assistance events -- in fact, we're having one this week.

Twice a year, we bring all the TA specialists in here, and we spend a week with them on professional development, and we're in the middle of one of those events right now. National centers -- because we have 12 different contracts, but because we're a national organization, it's important to us that we are working on the same -- with the same resources across all 12 regions because we don't want to have centers, teachers, directors in some regions having less access to resources than others.

So, the national centers really put out all the resources, all the training, and it's the 12 regional contracts then that use those and turn them into operation at the local level. In terms of the kind of TA that is provided both by national centers and at the regional level, we have a number of marching orders, if you will. Some of it, as Sharon alluded to, comes out of the Head Start Act, also known as the School Readiness Act, and some of it comes from the performance standards. So, while the Act laid out for us a number of things that had to happen, the performance standards came along and said, as Sharon said, "We're not going to tell you how to do it, but we are going to tell you a little bit more about what it is." So, we got a little more specific with kind of staff qualifications, for example, and what do folks need in order to work in Head Start? We got more specific about things like, what does it mean to implement a curriculum with fidelity, which is one of the requirements for teaching staff.

Yeah. And so, a requirement for our TA people as well. So, if you are kind of new to Head Start, you want to look at not only the Head Start Act, the School Readiness Act, but certainly at the Head Start program performance standards, which you could -- we have a wonderful app, by the way, for those of you [laughs] who like apps to pull that, and it's very easy to search. Priorities come in a variety of ways. Some, as we've said, come out of the Head Start Act; some come out of the performance standards; some come from ACF or HHS.

For example, we are currently heading into our second year of conducting regional events related to opioids and substance abuse, and that was a directive that came to us from above Head Start, but which we're happy to be able to participate in. So, we have -- we look at partnerships, as Sharon referred to, with a variety of early childhood partners, fiscal and program management, teaching/learning, family engagement, healthy and safety. So, the program really is comprehensive. The TA people we have out there also are required to be so that we try to put specialists on the ground who are equipped to help programs in each of these areas.

TA is provided to grantees in a variety of ways. We probably do, as the years go on, a little less of direct on-site work with grantees, primarily because of resources. So, like much of business everywhere, we're doing more virtual work, and we have -- our centers have been equipping themselves and the regions to be able to conduct webinars by -- virtually. So, you can see that most of the TA still is provided on site, and that's certainly what grantees prefer, so we -- specialists are required to travel a pretty good amount of time, and, in fact, we encourage some of them to be available for several days at a time when they're working with grantees.

Second then really is the virtual TA. We do a little phone TA, but not much, and in general, phone TA, which we don't encourage greatly, has to do with review of documents for things like boards of directors, et cetera. So, I think that's it for this. Questions from anybody who's kind of new to Head Start for Sharon or me? Okay, none. Well, we have a very knowledgeable audience, is what it is, so I guess now Darryl -- I don't know who Darryl is. Oh, yes.

Darryl is coming up. Oh, for questions? Okay, do you have a mic for questions, Robert? I see Darryl, but where there are questions -- oh, you've got it. Robert is way ahead of us, so he's heading over to you, which is great. Hi, Darryl.

>> Female Speaker: Hi. Of the 50 percent of the -- [clears throat] excuse me -- TA funds allocated to the grantees, how are those -- do those come through their grants, and from whom are they purchasing and what kind TA are they purchasing with those -- that 50 percent of the funds allocated for TA?

>> Patricia McMahon: That's a really good question, and there's no one answer [laughs]. But -- so, grantees have a lot of flexibility with that, right? And in a perfect world, what we ask them to do is think about what they get free, because national centers can't charge for anything they do, nor can the regional T/TA folks, and then to map that against what they see as their needs, and then they need to go out and purchase that. So, some of them will spend money on staff qualifications; some of them will spend it on resources to use with children. It is very varied.

And what they do is they develop an annual plan, and that goes into their program specialists at the regional office who may have a -- who will have a conversation with them and say, "You know what? I can see that over the last year this is, you know, what you've worked on and what's really strong in your program. I'm wondering if you thought about this." So, it's -- there's a wide variety, probably as wide as the number of grantees we have. Yes? Hello.

>> Alfred Amado: Good morning.

>> Patricia McMahon: Good morning to you.

>> Alfred Amado: Dr. Alfred Amado from Behavioral and Educational Solutions. We've been working with local, state, and public schools and nonprofit organizations at the -- providing mental health consultations, so it's somewhat of the TA, technical assistance. So, we're now -- we've recently -- we've gotten our AA and can work with the federal government, so how exactly do we become a member of the Technical Assistance cadre or subject matter expertise?

>> Patricia McMahon: You mean in terms of one of these contracts? Is that your question?

>> Alfred Amado: Yeah, is it -- is there a solicitation for TAs?

>> Patricia McMahon: Yes.

>> Alfred Amado: Okay, thank you.

>> Patricia McMahon: There will be a solicitation put out by PSC. Exactly when that will happen, I'm not sure. Darryl may know more about that. Darryl, do you have -- do you want to speak to this?

>> Darryl Grant: [inaudible]

>> Patricia McMahon: But, yes, there will be a solicitation put out, and it will be for each of the 12 contracts. It won't be tomorrow, though.

[laughter]

We expect the awards -- the current awards expire June 30th, and we expect the -- all 12 awards to be made by June 30th of next year. Exactly when the solicitation will go out, I can't tell you that at this point in time. Yes?

>> Maribeth Vander Weele: Can you -- I'm Maribeth Vander Weele; I'm from Chicago and --

>> Patricia McMahon: Oh, that's where I was for 20 years, right at Head Start.

>> Maribeth Vander Weele: Well, very good, very good. What is the connection between the TA and the monitoring program? In other words, do the monitoring findings feed into the TA? I imagine they do, based on the document that you sent out. But could you just describe that connection a little bit more?

>> Patricia McMahon: You know, yeah, it's kind of a funny connection in that, to some extent, we try to keep a clear line in the sand between the two because we don't want programs to think we're -- that we're finding findings -- sorry for the redundancy -- in order to create TA work. So -- but what does happen is once a review has been held, then the regional office will meet with their TA folks and have a conversation about what kind of assistance the grantee might profit from.

In some cases, the program specialist at the regional office will say, "You know what? The grantee knows what they're doing and what to do." In other cases, they'll send somebody in to work on it. Those findings then are rolled up, and at this level, then, we look at the aggregate findings to decide what -- for example, what kind of -- is there something that a national center could put out that would be helpful if we're seeing a particular finding in a number of cases? I don't know if I'm answering your question. Yeah? Okay. Hello. Hi.

>> Jovan Silva: Hey, how are you doing? Good morning.

>> Patricia McMahon: Good.

>> Jovan Silva: Jovan Silva here from the Bizzell Group.

>> Patricia McMahon: Okay.

>> Jovan Silva: You mentioned earlier briefly about a push for opioids. Can you just elaborate on that more?

>> Patricia McMahon: I'm going to let Sharon do that because she's been leading that effort, but -- and we have -- while she's getting over here, we've kind of changed the name a bit to Opioids and General Substance Misuse because we know in so many communities there are other things as well. So, Sharon, this is your baby, I think. Oh, Muriel wants me to shut up.

[laughter]

This is -- oh, okay. Questions.

>> Muriel Richardson: [unintelligible]

>> Patricia McMahon: Okay.

>> Muriel Richardson: I just wanted to make an announcement that Allyson Brown, the small business specialist, has joined us virtually, so she can take your questions if you have small business-specific questions.

>> Patricia McMahon: Oh, good.

>> Muriel Richardson: If you have contract questions -- and I apologize, I forgot to introduce myself initially. My name is Muriel Richardson. I'm the director of the contracts division for the Office of Head Start. So, both Darryl and I will take questions on contracts. And we also have some written questions; we will get to them in a few minutes after Sharon.

>> Patricia McMahon: And I'm very happy to turn contract questions over to them because Sharon and I like the TA questions the best.

>> Sharon Yandian: Let me let you look at these as we -- thank you for the question. We have -- you know, as actually Pat described and mentioned, make sure that we try to address what is happening in local communities. As you know, the opioid use disorder and the opioid crisis has obviously taken hold across the country, so one of the things that we did last year is we -- working with the regional offices, we had meetings in five of the regions, I think it was.

But before we did that, we had the opportunity to start with the National Center on Health and Wellness to have an expert panel in thinking about what it is that we should be doing and saying and working with, and what would that design look like? What would make the most sense? A lot of the focus has been on, you know, the treatment, but not necessarily on the prevention, and that's where Head Start really comes in, and working with children who may be living in homes where there has been substance use disorder or families who are experiencing that.

And so, the example -- you know, programs had an opportunity to come together along with folks from each of the states that make up the region who may be working in this area, anyone from, you know, a police officer to a librarian to child welfare, and it was an opportunity to have them come together, learn a little bit together, and then make those relationships, you know, at the state level.

All of that planning happened with the regional office who knows the states and knows the programs, and so that -- we couldn't do them all in one year, so this year we're going to do the next round of them, and we'll continue to work to support programs and use the evidence -- the little evidence base that we have in order to support what is the best way to go about supporting our Head Start children and families and our staff. So, I hope that helps.

>> Patricia McMahon: I will say that -- oh, okay. Let me move over here a little bit. So, the first half of the regions that had this conference already have been doing a lot of talking about it this week in terms of follow-up, and I think it'll be very interesting to see what each region comes out of it with. But they're really feeling like they're -- they've got some incredibly rich groups of folks together, including, as Sharon said, like, law enforcement, et cetera. So -- okay, other questions or --

>> Sharon Yandian: This one probably is pretty easy just to read it.

>> Patricia McMahon: Oh, yes.

>> Sharon Yandian: I'll read it.

>> Patricia McMahon: I -- oh, okay, you read it.

>> Sharon Yandian: Okay.

>> Patricia McMahon: Thank you, Sharon.

>> Sharon Yandian: Okay, you're welcome. There are two --

>> Patricia McMahon: I didn't have my glasses on, but --

>> Sharon Yandian: That's wonderful.

>> Patricia McMahon: [affirmative] Thank you.

>> Sharon Yandian: We have two specific questions. Will the system specialist position be cut, and will the finance manager be added back and covered by project funds?

>> Patricia McMahon: So, I would say that this is probably from somebody who holds a current contract to know these positions, and I'm not going to answer them right now. I think we're not right now going to speak about the details of the RFP because that does not put us in a good position, but we will -- when the RFP comes out, you'll get an answer to that. How's that?

>> Sharon Yandian: That sounds good. And another question: please elaborate on current or future plans to incorporate ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, disability awareness training to staff and volunteers. Would you like me to take that, or would you like to take it?

>> Patricia McMahon: Sure, go for it, and I'll come behind you.

>> Sharon Yandian: So, as we shared in the overview, services to children with disabilities is a very important component of Head Start. You know, most programs have a disability specialist, and so an example of some of the work that we do -- the National Center on Development, Teaching, and Learning, along with the regional TA folks, had a large meeting with grantees recently to talk with them about, you know, what their role is and the types of challenges they're facing in communities. But all of the programs are required to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act.

They work with local education agencies to access services for children who may have a potential disability and when the child is actually diagnosed with disability. So, they are required to follow all of those requirements, and there's quite a bit of training that goes into not only teachers and managers, bus drivers. It's very comprehensive in terms of supports for children with disabilities.

>> Patricia McMahon: Yeah. And, Sharon, I would add to that it -- really, it's all for centers that contribute to work in this area --

>> Sharon Yandian: Yeah, good point.

>> Patricia McMahon: -- and that because Center on Development, Teaching, and Learning works a lot with helping teachers develop strategies for working with children. Yes?

>> Sharon Yandian: Muriel -- oh.

>> Patricia McMahon: Robert? Robert is waving at us.

>> Male Speaker: I have another question for you.

>> Patricia McMahon: Okay. Hello.

>> Female Speaker: Good morning. My name is Jay [phonetic sp], with J.R. Smith and Associates. I kind of have a question. I'm picking up bits and pieces, so forgive me if it's convoluted, but that's kind of how I'm receiving the information. So, when I found the announcement for this on FBO, it was listed as a pre-solicitation meeting, and there was a draft statement of work attached. And so, in listening to you all, I've developed several more questions on what I had.

So, it sounds like there are already incumbents in place for the work that you're looking for in each of the different regions. And so, I guess, what type of contracting vehicle are you using for this region, and is it one particular contractor that's serving the region, and there are subcontractors that they're subbing the work out? Like, what exactly is the structure, and what are you looking for from industry to help inform the decision?

>> Patricia McMahon: Okay, I want to make one quick comment, and then I'm going to turn it over to my friend here who is the contract lead, is that what you saw on FedBizOpps is a sample of what went up before. It is not a piece of what we will be releasing this year because we haven't finished with it, first of all. So -- but, yes. So, Muriel?

>> Muriel Richardson: So, those were a whole lot of questions. Yes, there are currently incumbents for all 12 regions. The contracts -- the current contracts expire on June 30th, so the new -- of 2020. The new solicitation will need to be awarded by June 30, 2020. At this time, as Pat indicated, we're working with drafts, but we want input from industry. We would welcome ideas. You know, we certainly are open to any suggestions that industry may have at this point. I have gotten several contract questions, and also SBA-specific.

So, one of them asks, "Will OHS consider requiring bidders to demonstrate the ability to hire qualified staff without naming every staff member?" and that's a question I think Pat and I need to share the response on. Do you want to go first, Pat?

>> Patricia McMahon: You go first. I'll follow. I like to follow you, Muriel.

>> Muriel Richardson: Most all of the positions, with the exception of the administrative assistant currently, is a key personnel position. As such, they would have to be identified and a resume submitted with the proposal. In addition, early childhood education specialist positions would require transcript demonstrating their degree or experience with the -- I should say degree and coursework in early childhood education. Pat, is there anything you want to add?

>> Patricia McMahon: No, I would elaborate on the early childhood specialist position. And the reason we have qualifications is because the performance standards, and the act, too, for Head Start teachers and Head Start coordinators and managers, and they require that those folks at each of the local levels have either a degree in early childhood or development or another degree with equivalent coursework and preschool teaching experience. So, we're very clear that we cannot send people in to work with those individuals who don't have at least the same credentials that they do. So, yeah, we do -- proposals are reviewed pretty heavily on who's going to be working in them.

>> Muriel Richardson: Thank you, Pat. So, I have two questions coming up, which Allyson may want to respond to. The first question is, will there be opportunities for small business to prime any of the regional contracts? And the second question: will there be small business mandates or targets built in? Allyson? Allyson, are you on mute? Okay, looks like we're having technical difficulties, so let me have Darryl Grant respond to that question.

>> Darryl Grant: All right. So, my understanding is these contracts -- I'm actually not the contracting officer. Ryan Collins [phonetic sp] is the contracting officer -- I'm sorry. Ryan Collins is actually the contracting officer for this effort, but because of [unintelligible] activities, he's unable to be here. But as far as small business opportunities, I mean, there's not going to be a partial set-aside. The -- all of these 12 awards are going to be competed. It's going to be a cost reimbursement contract, and under each contract, there will be targets that the program officers are encouraged to try to meet. I believe it's 30 percent this year. I'm not --

>> Muriel Richardson: 33 percent.

>> Darryl Grant: 33 percent this year. I assume it'll be something similar to that next year. No, 33 percent. I mean, that's what you're encouraged. I mean -- and as competitive contracts, they will be -- it will be required to submit small business subcontracting opportunities plan, which would -- you know, which would include trying -- you know, indicating to us how you intend to meet those targets.

>> Muriel Richardson: Thank you, Darryl. So, the next question is, will OHS consider making certain regions SBSAs or require a percentage of every contract to be filled by SB? So, Darryl pretty much responded to that question. The other thing I do want to make note of: there will be a sources-sought posted where small businesses will be invited to submit capability -- their capability statements, and those will be reviewed by the government and considered when deciding the final acquisition strategy. Yes, sir?

>> Shezad Habib: Good morning.

>> Muriel Richardson: Good morning.

>> Shezad Habib: Good morning. This is Shezad Habib from Manhattan Strategy. Thank you for organizing this local event today. My question is regarding the regional centers that you've set up. And specifically, you know, from a topical perspective, I understand there are certain priorities that you have at a national level. Do those priorities -- from a historical perspective, not talking forward-looking -- do they vary by region as well as, is there coordination between the region if some of the priority evolves?

For example, if health and nutrition is a priority at a national level, or family engagement is a priority at national level, depending on certain regional, I guess, priorities or sub-priorities, does that change, and how does that affect the technical assistance that's delivered in that particular region?

>> Muriel Richardson: I'll turn it over to my colleague, Sharon.

>> Shezad Habib: And I have a second question about procurement to make sure I cover both ends, but -- if that's okay.

>> Muriel Richardson: Okay, well -- Sharon will answer your first question, and I'll come back to the mic afterwards.

>> Sharon Yandian: That's a very good question, thank you. You know, as Pat described, there were the national priorities, and of course -- and we had our colleague over here ask the question about monitoring. So, you know, the regional office is very aware of, you know, along those national priorities, where are the needs of particular programs within the region? How do they cluster? What are the trends? So, while the national priorities, you know, are how regions kind of move and manage, you know, their TA work, there are, you know, priorities that are region-specific. Oftentimes, they're more -- it may relate to the national priority, but there's more intensity in terms of the work they're doing with programs. And so, that's again the role of the national centers, is to hear from the regions, what are the priorities, what are they seeing, to make sure that there are resources available to them to use as they decide how they focus based on the needs of grantees and what the data is telling them. So, I hope that helps.

>> Patricia McMahon: Can I add to that?

>> Sharon Yandian: Yes, of course you can. And let me get this.

>> Patricia McMahon: So, what I would add to Sharon's comment is this is -- the answer to your question is in large part the reason why we fund these through the regions. So, because the TA folks are on the ground with grantees, as are the program specialists in the regional offices, and between those two groups, they have a pretty good knowledge about the grantee, about their strengths, about the areas where they might continue to develop.

Regional office staff generally meets with TA staff on a regular basis, and they -- I know what -- some will call it case management, some will call it something else, but really take a look then at the national priorities and decide how to tailor that to the grantee. I hope that answers your question. Thank you. Okay. And then I -- oh, I'm sorry, Robert. Am I supposed to --

>> Muriel Richardson: There's a second question --

>> Patricia McMahon: Yes.

>> Muriel Richardson: -- for this gentleman.

>> Patricia McMahon: Oh, yes, you have a second --

>> Male Speaker: No, no, Muriel has to answer.

>> Patricia McMahon: Oh. Muriel?

>> Muriel Richardson: Thank you. So, there was a second question, contract-related?

>> Shezad Habib: Yes. The question is I think you alluded to the fact there may be a percentage of small business within -- 33 percent within the existing incumbent contracts, but then you also indicated that there is a sources-sought that may determine an acquisition strategy. So, is there a plausibility that maybe potentially one or two regions are set-aside small business based on that sources-sought? I just want to understand the intention of that sources-sought and what could be the potential outcome associated with that. Thank you.

>> Muriel Richardson: Well, for one, it's a requirement that we conduct this type of market research and that in the event there are at least two small businesses that are identified as capable of doing the work, then we do have to consider the small business set-aside. So, this is just part of our acquisition strategy, what the program office is required to do.

>> Allyson Brown: Hi. Hello?

>> Patricia McMahon: Hello.

>> Muriel Richardson: Hello, Allyson. You were able to join us. Thank you.

>> Allyson Brown: I finally got through. Okay, yeah, you actually just spoke the truth there about there having to be two that roll up two small businesses, so -- but I'm here and available if you guys have additional questions.

>> Muriel Richardson: Okay, thank you. So, I will turn it over to Pat now.

>> Patricia McMahon: So, the question that I have is, what elements does the Office of Head Start consider when measuring the performances of quality T/TA? We do this in a variety of ways. One is that every time a TA provider goes out to work with a grantee, they fill out something called a T/TA activity report, which begins with describing what the expected outcomes for the visit were, and then it ends with describing what progress towards those outcomes actually was and whether further work needs to happen.

So, some of it is done at an individual level. They go back then to the regional office and talk about this, and determinations are made about whether more work needs to happen with that grantee in a particular area or not. We are also, at our level -- I don't know if -- Sharon, do we want to talk about the evaluation? Yeah? So, we have -- okay, hop up here.

>> Sharon Yandian: So, actually we're excited that this fall we're going to be going into the field with a survey with our colleagues from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. It's a two-part survey, so we'll first talk to Head Start directors or -- actually part of it is web-based -- with some questions partially related to your question on quality.

And then there'll be a second survey to get to the actual people in a program who can give us feedback not just -- not specifically the regional TA system. It's kind of the breadth and depth of all of the work we do in T/TA. And so, that -- we haven't had the opportunity to do that in my lifetime anyway, so this is something that we'll be very excited about in terms of that data that we'll get. Yes?

>> Barbara Rudin: Hi, good morning. I'm Barbara Rudin, executive vice president, Manhattan Strategy, and actually my question was broader. You've had the system in place for quite a while now, so when you look ahead -- look behind, look ahead -- what things have worked well, and what's on your wish list for the future?

>> Sharon Yandian: That's a broad question. You know, I mean, I don't want to say that that answer could be regional, but, you know, there are things that work well for some regions and things that don't work as well for some regions. I think Pat discussed a little bit about moving into how we best use technology, you know, in this day and age, and so I would say we've -- we haven't cracked the nut completely, you know, on that.