Fresno Head Start to end services at several sites due to enrollment declines. Here’s where
A Fresno poverty-fighting organization that administers the Head Start program nearly had to pay back more than $8 million in federal funds because of declining enrollment.
The Office of Head Start, the federal agency that oversees the program’s funding, directed the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission to reduce its program scope to prevent having to pay back about $8 million dollars to the federal government.
“Fresno EOC risks having funds recouped from OHS due to the vacant enrollment slots,” a staff report said. The estimated amount of those funds is $8.4 million.
Fresno EOC Board of Commissioners voted Feb. 24 to close two sites, terminate contracted services at six Fresno Unified sites and reduce the number of enrollment slots at over two dozen sites countywide. The changes will eliminate 290 center-based Head Start slots, 64 home-based Head Start slots, and 96 home-based Early Head Start slots.
Head Start is Fresno EOC’s largest program, bringing in tens of millions of dollars in funding every year.
But the program has been “encountering challenges with meeting full time enrollment,” Michael Balderas, the program’s interim director, said at a Jan. 7 Head Start committee meeting. The challenges stem from a staff shortage and an expansion of transitional kindergarten and state preschool classrooms in local school districts, he said.
A July 18, 2024 letter from the federal Office of Head Start said the program needed to meet a minimum 97% enrollment for six consecutive months or else be designated as “chronically underenrolled.” a designation that could have resulted in a reduction of funding.
The program was unable to meet this six-month minimum enrollment requirement, which prompted the “change of scope.”
The changes will help increase staff salaries and improve current facilities, the staff report said.
Head Start is a federally funded program that provides eligible pregnant women and children ages birth to five with child development and family support services. Fresno EOC has administered the program since 1965.
According to a 2023 annual report, the Head Start program in Fresno County served approximately 2,500 children and families.
After the program scope changes, Fresno EOC Head Start will serve 1,670 children and 334 Early Head Start infants and toddlers, a staff report said.
Program enrollment has been a challenge statewide, and has not met pre-pandemic levels, according to an October 2024 analysis from the Learning Policy Institute. Head Start’s 4-year-old enrollment declined by about 40% in California from 2019–20 to 2022–23, likely due to declining population of eligible children and workforce shortages, the report said.
Whistleblower complaint about Fresno Head Start
Fresno’s Head Start program is also facing scrutiny for its financial management practices. A whistleblower complaint to the federal Office of Head Start prompted the EOC to conduct an audit of the Head Start program, which was completed in February. The audit found 34 out of 120, or 28%, of the Head Start’s invoices were either being paid later than 30 days, or hadn’t yet been paid.
The Board’s audit committee approved another forensic audit of several EOC programs, including Head Start, to be completed in the next several months.
Fresno EOC parted ways with its former Head Start Director Rosa Pineda in October. According to her lawyer, she was allegedly fired for raising concerns about public funding earmarked for the Head Start program being used for other purposes and plans to sue Fresno EOC in the coming months.
The organization also parted ways with its CEO Emilia Reyes in December, after news of its deficit came to light.
Two Head Start sites will close, dozens of site reductions
As a result of the new change of scope, two Head Start sites will close in Cantua Creek and the city of San Joaquin, each of which had 20 slots available.
“These closures are a direct impact of the expanded state preschool programming at the current locations where Head Start leases space from the local elementary schools located at Cantua Creek Elementary and San Joaquin Elementary,” the staff report said.
Fresno EOC will also terminate contracted services with Fresno Unified School District for six preschool locations including: Calwa (40 slots), Kirk (16), Lane (20), Lincoln (20), Olmos (20), and Turner (18). These closures are the result of “challenges faced with meeting full enrollment, program compliance, training compliance, and staff qualifications at each site,” according to the staff report.
Fresno EOC is also planning to reduce Head Start programs at over two dozen sites countywide to come into compliance with federal enrollment standards.
This is the second program reduction in less than a year. According to a staff report, Fresno EOC’s Board reduced the Head Start program by nearly 500 slots in May 2024.
