2023 - #01: URGING AMENDMENTS FOR INDIAN HEAD START ELIGIBILITY TO THE HEAD START ACT

WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1970 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, NIEA as the largest national Native organization of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Native people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique relationship with Native nations and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, the National Indian Head Start Directors Association (NIHSDA), which has been the voice of American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start programs for over 35 years, reports that Indian Head Start programs are experiencing a growing number of program eligibility problems including, most notably, American Indian and Alaska Native students becoming ineligible as a result of outdated federal income limit requirements or losing their places in Indian Head Start programs to non-Indian income eligible children; and

WHEREAS, the idea of an eligibility fix has been approved and requested by numerous tribal leaders; and

WHEREAS, the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) has previously clarified that HHS does not currently have the regulatory authority to address this problem.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Indian Education Association urges an amendment to the Head Start Act to empower Tribal Nations to set their own eligibility criteria and improve enrollment of American Indian and Alaska Native children in Indian Head Start Programs; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of NIEA until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution.