By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 13, 2007

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has rejected a bid by the Arlington County school system to take over the county's federally funded Head Start program, which provides preschool for disadvantaged children.

The school system, in an effort to expand its early childhood programs, applied for $2.1 million in federal grants to run Head Start. The School Board also decided to contribute $1.9 million in local funds that would have been used to supplement salaries of the preschool teachers.

But federal officials informed the school system last week that it had not been selected as the county's Head Start provider. A spokeswoman at Health and Human Services said the department selected the private, nonprofit Northern Virginia Family Service, which offers such community programs as early childhood education, job training, counseling and prevention of homelessness.

Arlington school officials expressed disappointment, saying the system was in a good position to run Head Start because it has available classroom space, access to instructional materials and buses to transport students. The local funding would have allowed the schools to hire teachers with qualifications beyond those required under the federal program.

"We had so many pieces in place that it was the natural thing for us to do," said Mark Johnston, Arlington's assistant superintendent for instruction. "We're trying to get kids into an educational setting and get them a good foundation to get ready for school."

Arlington schools currently provide preschool for about 650 3- and 4-year-olds. School officials proposed serving 293 children in the Head Start program, an increase from the current county Head Start enrollment of 233.

Northern Virginia Family Service initially would offer the program for 233 children, according to its chief executive, Mary Agee. She said the group will limit that number over time and ultimately plans to serve 204 children.

Agee said the group is well-suited to run Head Start because it runs a similar federal program known as Early Head Start in Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William counties. Early Head Start provides services to infants and toddlers in low-income families.

"When this opportunity became available, we really felt we had years of experience in establishing high-quality Early Head Start programs and we would be able to extend that to Head Start," Agee said.

Tara Wall, spokeswoman for the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, said a panel of experts reviewed the applications. "Northern Virginia Family Service was judged to be the most qualified," she said.

Arlington's Head Start program has been without a permanent provider for more than a year.

For many years, the program had been run by the nonprofit Arlington Community Action Program, which closed in June 2006 after a federal audit revealed accounting lapses. A federal contractor, the Community Development Institute, has been running Head Start in Arlington pending the appointment of a permanent administrator.

About 909,000 children nationwide are in Head Start, which provides educational and health services to children from low-income families.