Head Start Program Gets 100% North Idaho Achieves Rare Record Of Perfect Compliance With Rules

North Idaho’s Head Start, which prepares 4-year-olds for success in school, got a straight-A report card on Friday.

A team of 10 experts spent a week examining the five-county program. They found it in compliance with all 253 minimum government standards.

“This is excellent news,” said a smiling Kathy Campbell, who teaches children from 17 low-income families in St. Maries.

Campbell was among Head Start staff members who gathered to hear directly from the monitoring team. They were graded on many different things, including how well they are teaching and feeding children, getting parents involved, keeping records, and spending money.

“The work you people do with the parents needs to be bottled up and given to other programs,” evaluator Dan Deltoso said, in a comment typical of those the Head Start staff heard Friday.

Only one other Northwest program got a perfect rating in the last three years.

Head Start gets 80 percent of its money from the federal government. Congress requires that each program be evaluated every three years. The last time around, North Idaho’s program was out of compliance in only about seven standards, said director Charlie Brown.

The program is administered by North Idaho College. It is helping 211 children at seven centers in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Sandpoint, Kellogg, St. Maries, Priest River, Bonners Ferry.

The youngsters come from poor families. To participate, a family of four must earn less than $14,000 a year. Because program funding is in short supply, Brown said, only one in every five children who qualify gets into a Head Start classroom. Those who do make it are in good hands, according to the monitoring team.

Team members were teachers, nurses and other professionals from the four-state region that includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. Among their comments:

Pat Brinkman said the North Idaho program did the best job she’s seen in looking after children’s mental health. That includes involving outside counselors. “I’ve never seen such a wide range of professionals available who are qualified in small, rural communities.”

Peg Crowley also was impressed by the program’s ability to get community support. The staff’s ability to involve dentists in the children’s care is “a benchmark in how to do it and do it right.”

The program is efficient. Administrative costs are kept under 11 percent, which is well under the 15 percent limit set by the government. That allows more money to be spent on the children, noted Sally Murdock of the Head Start regional office in Seattle.

, DataTimes