Step Forward is asking the Office of Head Start to approve a change to our Head Start program that would better align the number of children we are funded to serve with our current program capacity.
Like early childhood programs across the country, we continue to face challenges recruiting and retaining qualified educators. As a result, hundreds of our funded Head Start slots remain vacant.
Our request would reduce our required funded enrollment while allowing us to invest more of our existing resources in the children, families and educators we serve. No currently enrolled child would lose their Head Start slot as a result of this change.
This would mean greater investment in our educators, more individualized support for families, enhanced services for children with special needs, and a stronger, more sustainable Head Start program for Cuyahoga County.
We believe our resources can do more when they are invested where children and families need them most.
We invite parents, Board and Policy Council members, community partners, advocates and other supporters to stand with Step Forward by adding their names to the following letter.
Read our Community Letter of Support
We, the undersigned parents, community members, Board and Policy Council members, partners, advocates and leaders who live, work and serve families throughout Cuyahoga County, strongly support Step Forward’s Change in Scope request to the Office of Head Start.
For more than 60 years, Step Forward has been a trusted part of this community, helping generations of children enter school ready to learn while surrounding families with the support and opportunities they need to move forward. We share a common interest in ensuring that Head Start remains strong, responsive and sustainable for the children and families who depend on it.
That is why we support this request.
Step Forward is proposing to reduce its funded Head Start enrollment from 1,612 to 1,185 slots, a 26.5% reduction. We recognize that a reduction of this size is significant. But the 427 slots included in the request are currently vacant. No currently enrolled child would lose their Head Start slot as a result of this change.
Instead, this request gives Step Forward an opportunity to invest more deeply in the children and families it serves today while building a stronger program for the future.
Early childhood education has changed significantly in recent years. Programs locally and nationally are competing for a limited pool of qualified educators, while families in Cuyahoga County now have access to a broader range of publicly funded early learning options. Step Forward has worked to respond to these realities, but continuing to fund hundreds of slots that cannot consistently be filled does not strengthen Head Start or improve the experience of the families it is intended to serve.
We believe those resources can, and should, do more for children.
Under the proposed change, Step Forward’s Head Start operating budget would decrease from $26,566,552 to $26,342,873, a 0.8% reduction, while per-slot spending would increase from approximately $16,480 to $22,230, an increase of approximately 34.9%.
That investment would help Step Forward address some of the very challenges affecting the strength of the program: recruiting and retaining qualified educators through more competitive compensation, providing stronger support to child care partners, reducing Family Service Worker caseloads, and enhancing services for children with special needs.
Just as importantly, the $223,679 reduction in Head Start funding would be redirected to Step Forward’s Early Head Start program. There would be no net reduction in Step Forward’s combined Head Start and Early Head Start federal funding. These resources would remain here, serving Cuyahoga County children and families.
For us, this request is not simply about reducing a number. It is about strengthening what happens behind that number.
A Head Start slot matters because of what it provides: a safe and nurturing classroom, a qualified teacher who can help a child grow, support for a family working toward its goals, connections to health and developmental services, and opportunities that can shape a child's future.
We want those services to be strong. We want the educators providing them to stay. We want families to receive meaningful support. And we want Step Forward’s Head Start program to remain a strong resource for this community for generations to come.
As stakeholders connected to the Cuyahoga County community, we acknowledge and support Step Forward’s proposed 26.5% reduction in funded Head Start enrollment, 0.8% reduction in the Head Start operating budget, and approximately 34.9% increase in per-slot spending.
We believe this is a thoughtful and responsible path forward, and one that reflects current realities while protecting what matters most: the quality of the services children and families receive.
We respectfully urge the Office of Head Start to approve Step Forward’s Change in Scope request and allow these resources to work harder for the children, families and educators they are intended to support.