Feds Plan Higher Pay for Head Start Teachers Amid Severe Staff Shortage

The Biden administration wants to significantly raise the salaries of Head Start teachers to reverse the staffing shortage that it says is threatening the future of the early education program for children from lower-income families.

Under a proposed rule change published Monday on the Federal Register (PDF), Head Start teachers would have to be paid as much as preschool teachers in their local school district. That could mean an average increase of $10,000 per year for more than 27,500 Head Start staffers in California.

“For too long, our skilled and passionate Head Start workforce has been underpaid, which has impacted the program’s ability to retain and recruit qualified teachers,” Xavier Becerra, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.

The change is necessary to ensure young children get reliable care and equal access to high-quality early education, advocates told KQED.

Head Start has been plagued by understaffing and high turnover rates since classrooms reopened after the pandemic shutdowns. A survey conducted by the National Head Start Association last month found that 15% of classrooms were closed due to high vacancy rates.

Members who responded to the survey cited low compensation as the main reason Head Start teachers — most of whom have at least a bachelor’s degree — were leaving for better-paying jobs at public schools or other sectors.

The national average salary for Head Start teachers was $39,096 per year, while the average pay for preschool teachers in a public school setting was $53,200 and $65,210 for kindergarten teachers, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.

The pay gap goes as far as 25% in Stanislaus County in the Central Valley, according to a comparison of school district and Head Start salaries conducted by the county’s Office of Education.

“There’s a stark difference, and that’s without going into the fact that Head Start teachers work year-round while K–12 teachers get winter, spring and summer breaks,” said Tony Jordan, executive director of the office’s Child & Family Services Division.

Wu Yee Children’s Services, the largest provider of Head Start programs in San Francisco, has a 17% vacancy rate and a low pool of substitute teachers, even though salaries range between $28 to $40 per hour thanks to additional funding from the city, said the center’s executive director, Monica Walters.

“With those wages, we’re still not attracting the people that we need, and they’re not staying because of all the other costs of living [in San Francisco],” she said.

The low pay, combined with the physically and emotionally demanding work, is driving high turnover rates, which affects the quality of care for young children.

“We all know that when kids don’t have the same teacher day after day or year over year, they don’t know what to expect,” Walters said. “Parents don’t know who they’re going to be talking to in the classroom, and that really affects outcomes for the kids.”

The lack of staffing is leading to longer wait lists. This year, California received funding to cover nearly 95,000 slots, but only about 85,000 children are enrolled, according to Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California.

Besides poor pay, she said many families don’t meet the income requirements to enroll in Head Start because the federal poverty guidelines are “unrealistically low” in California. For example, a family of four must have an annual income of $30,000 to qualify for Head Start.

That’s why many early education programs combine funding from the California State Preschool Program, which provides subsidized early care and education for 3- to 5-year-old children. The income limit to qualify for the program — $96,000 for families of four — is higher than Head Start’s.

Higher reimbursement rates from the state program have helped programs like Izzi Early Education, the largest Head Start provider in San Mateo County, to increase their teachers’ salaries to about $38 per hour — which is about $5 less than what kindergarten teachers in the region earn hourly, said the program’s director, Angel Barrios.
She applauds the proposed rule change that would put Head Start teachers on the same pay scale as elementary school teachers.

“That is our goal. We’re getting very close to it, but we’re not there yet,” Barrios said.

She said that since the pandemic, some of her teachers have moved as far away as Sacramento — and still commute back for work — because they couldn’t afford to live in San Mateo County.

To develop a pipeline of new teachers, her program offered Head Start parents and those interested in entering the profession a stipend to take child development classes and obtain permits to work in classrooms. Apprentices who want to continue their education receive free tuition from local colleges.

So far, 37 people have received their entry-level credentials, allowing Izzi to fill vacancies and open all of its classrooms this year, Barrios said.

“You have to be creative, innovative and … one of the ways that we were able to do that was to create this pipeline and include parents in our program,” she added.

The proposed rules also include important changes to improve mental health support and benefits such as paid leave, as well as support services for families enrolled in Head Start. The public has 60 days to submit comments on the proposed rules.