Skip to main content

Services to Indian Head Start Grantees Under a Special Program

HRD-76-141 Published: Nov 04, 1976. Publicly Released: Nov 04, 1976.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

The Indian and Migrant Programs Division of the Office of Child Development, HEW, awarded a grant to an Indian-owned corporation to develop and help put into nationwide operation its specialized program of training and technical assistance. Training and technical assistance services were provided to Indian Head Start projects in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho by the corporation. Because of insufficient documentation, GAO could not determine, and the Division could not satisfactorily demonstrate, the extent to which certain services were furnished by the corporation. In some documented cases services were not performed to the extent planned; in others, services beyond those planned were delivered; and in still others, services planned were not provided. The Division's reliance on verbal agreements and informal authorizations led it to depart from normal grant procedures. The Secretary of HEW should direct the Office of Child Development to: make sure that the Division's review of its specialized and general training and technical assistance programs includes an evaluation of the most effective method of providing assistance and that the evaluation's findings are implemented; maintain sufficient documentation to permit strengthening management practices and to provide a basis for evaluation; and insure that the grant mechanism is not utilized to to meet perceived staffing shortages. Grant guidelines should also be revised to specifically state what constitutes a change of scope in a grant.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Child care programsEducation program evaluationNative American educationPublic assistance programsHead Start programsTechnical assistanceChild developmentChild abuseExpenditure of fundsNative Americans