Number of children on Head Start’s wait list is increasing

The number of children who are waiting to be enrolled in the Public School System’s Head Start program continues to increase, this time now numbering over a hundred on the wait list.

Melissa Palacios, the program director, reported to the Board of Education that, as of last week, there were a total of 121 eligible children who were waiting for their chance to be accepted into the program.

Saipan Tribune learned that Head Start only had about 90 children on the wait list when the school year started in September. The number has grown since then.

According to Palacios, only one child on the list was accpeted after one enrollee’s family decided to relocate to Guam in November.

The CNMI Head Start is a federally funded program under the Department of Health and Human Services. It provides developmental services for low-income children ages 3 to 5 and social services for their families. At present, it is allowed to enroll only 462 children every program year based on the federal assistance allocated for the program’s personnel and operation.

Palacios said that in previous years, children on the wait list averaged up to 120 each year.

“We started the school year with only about 90 on the wait list but because our registration is open, we see the continuous increase in the number of kids on our wait list and there’s no way we can accommodate them because we are required only a limited number of enrollees, which is 462,” she told Saipan Tribune.

She said that the program has an operating yearly budget of about $1.8 million, of which about $320,000 comes from the local share.

Years ago, the funded enrollment for Head Start was 579 but due to the budget decline at the national level, the enrollment was capped at 462. Palacios does not expect to see any increase in their enrollment numbers within the year.

According to Palacios, the program also requires maintaining a wait list every program year to make sure the next available child is ready to be enrolled once another enrollee drops out.

Of the 462 enrollees it serves, Palacios said 58 children, or about 13 percent of the population, have disabilities. This percentage is higher than what the program requires, which is 10 percent. The CNMI has 10 Head Start centers on three islands.