Feds pull funds from Navajo Head Start

WASHINGTON — Broken play equipment with jagged edges and protruding nails. Dogs and horses roaming through playgrounds. Faulty heaters and exposed wires in classrooms. Repeated late bills.

They were just some of the widespread problems that prompted the federal government this spring to yank funding from the Navajo Nation's Head Start centers, a report shows.

The report by the Administration for Children and Families obtained by The Associated Press details wide-ranging woes that threatened children's safety and raises questions about how hundreds of thousands of federal dollars were spent on a program that's relied on by thousands of Navajo parents.

Navajo and Head Start officials say they are working together to fix the problems and are optimistic that the grant can be reinstated. And while some money was released to operate summer programs, it may be some time before several centers on the sprawling Indian reservation can reopen.

"There were some significant problems cited," said Channell Wilkins, the federal Head Start director, noting that his office is examining how the problems at the Navajo program became so pervasive. "We have a number of systems in place, and some of those systems did break down. . . . Grantees don't fall apart on their own."

In May, federal officials halted funding to the program, which serves more than 4,000 infant to pre-school-age children at 117 centers and receives $9.2 million a year.

Previously, Navajo and Head Start officials have said that the grant had been revoked because the Navajo Nation failed to perform background checks on current or former employees from 2001 to 2005. Partial reviews for 612 employees done after October 2005 found 106 with a criminal record. Of those, 51 had records of offenses including first-degree murder, child abuse, domestic abuse and driving while intoxicated.

But the ACF report, obtained as part of Freedom of Information Act request by the AP for details about the employees with criminal records, shows that Navajo Head Start had many more problems to resolve than failed background checks.

According to the report, investigators visiting the centers found:

• Hazardous conditions at 40 classrooms and playgrounds, including broken glass, bottles, cans, metal strips, splinters, exposed wires, animal fecal matter, barbed wire, lumber with protruding nails and jagged, broken play equipment.