Partial OK for Navajo Head Start

The Navajo Early Head Start program started its summer session Wednesday after federal authorities partially lifted a suspension of the program, saying the Navajo Nation had met criminal background check requirements.

But funding for the larger Head Start program will remain on hold until the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families is satisfied the program's 844 employees have had criminal background checks and assessments of transgressions.

The administration suspended federal funding for the Navajo Head Start and Early Head Start programs May 2 when it discovered 51 people with criminal histories, including murder, were employed in the program and hadn't had criminal background checks.

In a letter to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., the administration on Tuesday lifted the suspension of the Early Head Start program for expectant mothers and children but kept in place a suspension of the Head Start Program.

"We have concluded the Nation has taken important steps to address the systemic monitoring issues as related to requirements intended to protect the health and safety of children and staff," wrote Channell Wilkins, Head Start Bureau associate commissioner. Yet "because there has not been full implementation of necessary corrective actions, I am not satisfied the deficiencies leading to the suspension of funding have been corrected and will not occur again and have, therefore, determined there remains a continuing risk to the health and safety of Head Start children and staff."

Navajo officials scrambled to notify employees and families through phone calls and radio announcements that the Early Head Start program was resuming immediately.

"It demonstrates that our steps to correct a big problem are being recognized and acknowledged, and, as president of the Navajo Nation, I greatly appreciate that," Shirley said in a prepared statement. "We're doing everything we can to correct all of the deficiencies in our program and we hope to see it completed in short order."

George Hardeen, spokesman for the president, said Tuesday that Shirley, who campaigned on education four years ago, wants to see all the issues resolved within 30 days. "He wants the whole thing to be better than it was," Hardeen said.

The ruling released $9.2 million to resume the Early Head Start program, and to bring the Head Start program into compliance, Navajo Nation officals said.