Funding suspended for Navajo Head Start

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has suspended the Navajo Nation's Head Start funding after discovering 51 people with criminal histories, including murder, spousal abuse and child abuse, were employed in the program without having to first undergo a criminal background check.

That means Head Start for low-income children and Early Head Start, helping expectant mothers and infants, have come to a screeching halt on the Indian reservation in the Four Corners area.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. is hoping to resolve all the issues within 30 days, said George Hardeen, the president's spokesman. All Head Start employees have been placed on furlough, he said.

"It's very serious because Head Start touches almost every Navajo family," Hardeen said. "It's a young population. We have a very high birthrate, and Head Start is a very valuable program.

"President Shirley has got this as job one," he said.

Hardeen said the tribe's attorney general is looking into why background checks weren't conducted. Federal assistance has been requested to put interim policies and procedures in place to ensure the issue is resolved.

A report, expected Monday, will determine whether the Navajo Nation has adequately addressed concerns regarding Early Head Start employee background checks. Basically, it will be the key to whether the smaller-scale, year-round program can resume immediately.

"The (Navajo Nation) president and Navajo Nation is focused on this issue, and they expressed to us, they wanted us to thoroughly understand, they were concerned for the health and safety of Navajo Nation children," said Joan E. Ohl, commissioner of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Administration on Children, Youth and Family.

There are other issues as well. The FBI fingerprint-based checks do not include potential criminal histories contained in the sovereign Navajo Nation's records, said Ohl. The Navajo Nation is in the process of conducting its own background checks.

And the Head Start program is one of several within the Navajo Department of Education.

"Whether it's in other departments, I couldn't say," Hardeen said.

The federal government gave $400,000 to store equipment for the summer, about a week shy of the school year's end, Ohl said.

The regular Head Start Program typically starts up in August; Ohl says she's hopeful the Navajo Nation can address background check problems by then.