WASHINGTON — The Prince George’s County Public Schools announced on Friday that a new program, called Early Start, will operate in place of the Head Start program.
No services or sites of the former Head Start will be cut, the school system said. The program will continue to be operated through the county, and will be operated and funded by the school system.
“No services will be cut, no Head Start sites will be closed and all students will continue to be served,” Kevin Maxwell, the CEO of the school system, said in a statement. “That was our goal from the beginning. We are pleased to provide continuity and stability for students and families, and enhance student safety at all sites.”
The change takes effect Monday with no noticeable changes for students, though it’s possible some staffers may be let go if they do not successfully pass through the screening process.
“This is a first start in reclaiming our county and reclaiming our schools and reclaiming what we do every day in taking care of our children in Prince George’s County,” said Theresa Mitchell Dudley, president of the Prince George’s County Educators Association.
“This outcome ensures that students and families will experience no disruption or reduction in services,” Prince George’s County Board of Education Chair Segun C. Eubanks said in the statement.
“We will continue to examine the circumstances that led to the grant termination, but this path forward expands early education services in our schools and throughout our communities.”
The school system said that instructors and aides for the Early Start program would undergo Child Protective Services screening, as well as “more frequent professional development that reinforces standards of conduct for PGCPS employees and techniques on positive student discipline.”
Maxwell said he met with all the teachers and assistants Friday morning “reinforce for them our expectations and to talk to them about the shift in this program.”
The program will also be overseen by a 10-member board consisting of three parents, two external early childhood education experts, two people from Prince George’s County social services, two school system central office staff members and one member of the Board of Education.
The Early Start program will serve 855 students at 36 program sites. It will be funded by a combination of hiring freezes on central office vacancies, which the statement says will save $2.9 million, and eliminating 19 Head Start position in the central office ($2.6 million). Those workers will be moved into other jobs in the school system.
The Administration for Children and Families announced last month that they were terminating their $6.4 million grant for the Head Start program in the wake of allegations of misconduct and mistreatment of children by instructors and aides.
Dudley said the accusations against a few teachers do not apply to all.
“Parents need to understand that while there may have been some people that may have been doing some things that were wrong, by and large, the teachers in Prince George’s County, the paraprofessionals in Prince George’s County, for the most part, we are doing what we are supposed to be doing,” Dudley said.
The teacher’s union president said there are cultural differences over how children are disciplined.
“How do we deal with the cultural differences as a community and how do we work with our churches, work with our community groups, work with our PTAs to make sure that everyone is on the same cultural understanding about what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate?” Dudley said.
The future plans for the county’s Early Start and Head Start, which is set to be run by a third-party group known as the Community Development Institute, beyond this year are not clear. Maxwell said figuring that out is one of the next steps in the process.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in a statement provided to WTOP, said it is “committed” to continuing its investment in Prince George’s County “to support the delivery of high-quality services to low-income families and children.” The agency’s Administration for Children and Families plans to identify a permanent Head Start provider through a competitive process.
WTOP’s Dennis Foley contributed to this report.
