OHS Webcast: FY26 Monitoring Kickoff

Glenna Davis: Hello and welcome everyone to the Office of Head Start (OHS) webcast, FY26 Monitoring Kickoff. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Captain Tala Hooban. She's the acting director for the Office of Head Start. Captain Hooban, the floor is yours.

Capt. Tala Hooban: Thank you, Glenna. I didn't realize you were being such a hype woman today. I appreciate it. Hi everyone! It is so wonderful to be with you all today as we look ahead to our fiscal year 2026 monitoring season. First, I want to say a super heartfelt thank you. Thank you for the work that you do every day in your programs. It truly makes a difference in the lives of children and families across the country.

I just want to make sure we pause and say that. Your dedication, resilience, creativity and commitment are inspiring to all of us and we appreciate you. As we look forward to the fiscal year 26 program season, I'm excited to share some hopefully thoughtful adjustments that you guys will appreciate that we are making to our monitoring approach.

I want to reassure you that much of what you have experienced in monitoring will feel familiar. We're not reinventing the wheel. Instead, we really have listened to your feedback and made some key shifts to reduce the burden and better align our monitoring with where you are in your grant cycle.

This administration has emphasized the importance of reducing burden while maintaining program integrity, and with that, we hope we were able to do that this year and we will continue to grow working together across our oversight division, our policy, our comprehensive services and training and technical assistance divisions.

We've refined our approach to make monitoring more supportive, more efficient and grounded in the intent of our policies. From our perspective, monitoring isn't about just catching programs doing something wrong. It's about having a meaningful conversation about program quality and identifying both strengths and opportunities for growth. Think of it as a check in between partners who share the same goal, which is to provide the best possible services to children and families.

What I'm particularly proud of is how our teams have come together to create this more streamlined approach. Everyone at the Office of Head Start is aligned in wanting to support you in the important work that you do, and these refinements hopefully reflect that shared commitment. Now I'll actually pass the conversation off. No one wants to hear me intro for a long time, to our oversight division to walk you through what is actually changing, what's staying the same, and how these adjustments will benefit your programs. Faith?

Faith Scheibe: Thank you so much, Tala. Hi everyone, I'm Faith Scheibe from the oversight division and I'm excited to chat with you today about our refined monitoring approach for FY26. Let's zoom out for just a minute. Monitoring is still anchored in the Head Start Acts Requirements for reviews across the five-year cycle.

As you see here, we'll continue to conduct Focus Area 1s early in the cycle. Focus Area 2s later in the cycle. CLASS reviews in years three and four, and of course special or follow-up reviews as needed. I want to start by emphasizing what Tala mentioned. Much of what you'll experience in FY26 monitoring will feel familiar. We're keeping the core elements that work well while making some thoughtful adjustments based on your feedback and the shared goal of reducing administrative burden. With stability and continuity at the forefront, we are strengthening the current review structure.

The main shift we're implementing is a more staggered monitoring structure that better aligns with your grant cycle. At the top of the slide is CLASS. Let's start there. CLASS will continue in the same way you're familiar with, taking place in years three and four and remaining focused on teacher child interactions.

For FY26, class reviews will be conducted through the same three formats: video, onsite and self-review for American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) programs. The default format is video reviews, with onsite reviews, as an option, where needed. AIAN recipients can choose from onsite video or self-review. Most importantly, we're still using the CLASS 2008 edition for FY26, so this will feel familiar.

Next, on the diagram were special reviews and follow-up reviews. The two reviews serve very different purposes, but together they give us the flexibility in how we address issues. Special reviews are not routine, they're only conducted when we need to address an urgent issue that can't wait until a regularly scheduled FA1 or FA2 review.

They typically occur onsite, and depending on the concern, they may span over one or more content areas. Think of these reviews as a responsive tool, one that allows us to dig into significant issues like child safety or fiscal integrity when timing is critical. Follow-up reviews, on the other hand, are designed to confirm that corrective action has resolved a previously identified issue.

Unlike special reviews, these are usually conducted virtually as desk reviews, which makes them more efficient. They are narrow in scope and focused only on the original finding or area of noncompliance. For recipients, follow-up reviews provide closure, clear communication that they have successfully corrected the issue. For us, they ensure accountability that we've met our responsibility to protect program integrity. The Risk Assessment Notification, or RAN review are another important review type.

These reviews are triggered by reports of significant child safety concerns and are designed to collect information about a reported child safety incident. These reviews focus on significant concerns such as abuse, neglect, inadequate supervision, inappropriate conduct, or the unauthorized release of a child. It's important to remember RAN Reviews are not full monitoring events. They are targeted reviews intended to quickly gather facts and help OHS respond to serious safety concerns in real time.

The RAN process for FY26 will remain unchanged. That means the same structure and protocols are in place, ensuring consistency for both reviewers and recipients. Together, special reviews, follow-up reviews, and RAN reviews give us a balanced approach. We can respond rapidly to urgent risks, verify that corrections have been made, and address safety concerns immediately when they arise. Now I'm going to turn it over to Tamara, who will tell us about the other reviews.

Tamara White: Thank you Faith. Greetings everyone! I am Tamara White, also from the oversight division. Now we're going to talk about Focus Area 1 or FA1. Now these early reviews will focus on your foundational systems: fiscal integrity, program design and management implementation (PDMI) and child health and safety. The timing for these reviews remains similar to what you are used to.

That is, they are early in your grant cycle, still typically three days, with 3 to 4 reviewers. Still using familiar methods like document review, data walks and conversations with staff, and is a hybrid event with some activities conducted onsite and others will be conducted virtually. Next slide. Now what you're seeing here is the FY26 FA1 monitoring protocol. The resource that you, the grant recipients, can use to help you prepare for your review.

This protocol lays out the key program systems that OHS will assess during FA1, such as, again, program design and management, child health and safety, fiscal infrastructure, and eligibility and enrollment. It also explains how the review team will gather information from conversations with governing body and policy council members, to looking at fiscal controls and observing classrooms.

The goal of sharing this protocol is to bring both transparency and clarity. Recipients can see exactly what areas will be reviewed and how the process will unfold. I just like to note that the monitoring protocol, these documents are currently available on the virtual expo as well as HeadStart.gov. Now, to help you get ready for your FA1 review, OHS has developed a set of review guides.

There are four guides, one for each content area. I will repeat them again. That is program design and management implementation (PDMI), supporting safe and healthy learning environments, eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment and attendance, and fiscal infrastructure. Each of these guides outlined the key topics review teams will explore and describe some monitoring activities used during the review.

These resources are practical tools designed to help you prepare, in advance, and know what to expect. Again, these guides are available on the virtual expo. Now let's talk about the Focus Area 2, or FA2. These later reviews will concentrate on your programmatic areas. That is Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment, and Attendance (ERSEA), Education and Development, or ECD, and Family and Community Engagement, or FCE. We'll include a lighter follow-up on the FA1 areas to see how they are progressing.

A hybrid event with some activities conducted onsite and others will be conducted virtually. This is still typically 3 to 4 days depending on program size, with 3 to 4 reviewers still including classroom explorations, document review, data walks, and staff conversations. Now, here's a copy of the FY26 FA2 monitoring protocol. It looks very familiar and very similar to the structure of the FA1 protocol we saw just a few slides ago. This protocol focuses on the implementation of high-quality services.

Now you may notice that we are back to the six content areas here, that we had in the FA2 in past years, opposed to the four that we saw in FA1 just now. The intent for this protocol is the same, that is, to support grant recipients to be prepared for their review, through transparency and clarity. It explains how the review team will gather information from the kick off with leadership team to looking at fiscal controls and observing classrooms. Again, these documents are available on both the virtual expo and HeadStart.gov.

To support programs and preparing for the focus area to review. We've developed a set of review guides. There are six content area guides available: Program, Design, Management and Improvement; Fiscal Infrastructure; Education and Child Development; Health Services; Family and Community Engagement; Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment and Attendance, or ERSEA, and each guide outlines the key topics reviewers will focus on, as well as the monitoring activities that will take place during the FA2 review. These resources are designed to give you a clear picture of what to expect and to help you feel as prepared as possible as you move through this process and these guides are available on our virtual expo. With that, I'm going to turn this over to my colleague, Cynthia.

Cynthia Romero: Thanks, Tamara! Let's talk about the report that you receive when your review is complete. You'll receive a report that follows a consistent format. These reports describe several types of information depending on what was observed. First, they include compliant performance measures.

These are the areas where the program is fully meeting the Head Start Program Performance Standards. You may also see areas of concern. These don't mean a violation, but they do signal where there's room for program improvement. Areas of noncompliance are findings where your program is not meeting a specific requirement and needs to make corrections.

Deficiencies are more serious and indicate a systematic or substantive failure that requires immediate corrective action. Finally, we've also added strong practices to highlight places where your program is making exceptional efforts to provide high quality services in a specific area. We want you to know that these reports aren't just about identifying problems. They're also designed to recognize your strengths and to provide clear, actionable feedback that supports continuous improvement.

As we look ahead to Fiscal Year 26, here are the key dates for when monitoring will begin. Focus Area 1 and Focus Area 2 reviews will start on October 13th, 2025. CLASS reviews, whether conducted through video or onsite, will begin October 20th, 2025. For AIAN programs, those are our tribal programs, CLASS self-reviews will also start on that same date, October 20th.  

Finally, RAN Reviews, Follow-up Reviews and AIAN Re-evaluations will continue to occur as needed throughout the year. If you're being reviewed this year, you'll receive a letter letting you know which review type you'll receive, and then, you'll receive a 45-day letter before your scheduled review occurs.

These letters are sent through Head Start Enterprise System (HSES) and will provide the date of the review. If you haven't submitted your availability calendar, please do so today. Thank you for doing that. As you can see on the slide, there is an email address at OHS monitoring that will help to facilitate updating any availability.

As part of the 45-day letter process, recipients will be asked to upload certain documents into HSES no later than 14 days before the review begins. You can go to HSES, to the documents tab, and in the documents tab, you'll see an additional tab for pre-review. The documents that you need to include here are, your most recent audit, the most recent SF-425, and SF-429 submissions.

If you're getting an FA2 CSR review, subrecipient or delegate contracts, as applicable, a detailed general ledger from the most recent completed program year covering all Head Start grants under review, fiscal policies and procedures, and finally, a program enrollment roster without the personal identifiable information, please, which will be used for eligibility file sampling. This step helps ensure reviewers have the key materials they need to prepare for a smooth and efficient review process. Now I'm going to hand it over to my colleague, Kate Troy, who's going to talk to you about OHS priorities aligning with monitoring priorities.

Kate Troy: Thank you Cynthia. Hi everyone! My name is Kate from the Policy Division and I'd like to chat about how these monitoring refinements connect to our broader goals and priorities. The beauty of these adjustments is that they maintain everything that's important while making the process more efficient.

First, these changes absolutely uphold the Head Start Act's requirements for ongoing oversight, while responding to the call to reduce unnecessary burden, by being more intentional about what we monitor, when we're maintaining key oversight, while hopefully making the process more manageable for your teams.

Second, our unwavering commitment to child health and safety remains front and center. By focusing on these foundational areas early in the FA1 PSR, we're ensuring that these essential protections continue to be a priority. Third, fiscal integrity and program accountability remain core to our approach. By examining fiscal systems early in the grant cycle, we can partner with you to address any current concerns before they impact your program operations.

Finally, once you review the protocols, you'll notice that we're not going to be asking about some of the recent updates to the Performance Standards, including standards on salaries and benefits. Those standards aren't in effect as of now and won't be considered in this monitoring season. Throughout this process, our policy division will continue to work hand-in-hand with our oversight and training and technical assistance (TTA) colleagues to ensure we're all aligned in supporting you. Now, I'll pass the conversation to the TTA Director, Sharon Yandian, to share more about TTA and monitoring.

Sharon Yandian: Thank you, Kate. Good afternoon, everybody! I'm seeing a note about the presentation slides, I think they thought maybe you wanted to see us instead of the slides. Perhaps access to the slides could be shared. I just have one slide, but I first want to introduce myself.

I'm Sharon Yandian, and as Kate said, the director of the comprehensive services and TTA division, one of the divisions here at the office and the oversight team thought it would be great, and I agree to share a bit about how things work kind of behind the scenes. At least across the OHS divisions as it relates to monitoring.

My slide that maybe you can't see is basically just has a couple of things on it, which is the comprehensive services and TTA division’s purpose. One of them is to have that subject matter expertise and parent family and community engagement and health, education and program management and collaborate with the team as they are developing the tool each year.

Revisiting, refining, of course, we use the kind of knowledge, and what we know, which is the most up to date information evidence and also the administration's priorities and provide that feedback in that in the process. With those insights sometimes also when I talk a little bit about TTA we hear about what is clear and not clear in the tool.

We try to bring that knowledge as well, so that's one way that we collaborate. The other I think just to think about the division oversees the role of the National TTA centers and their purpose, number one, they develop a lot of content for HeadStart.gov. We're really interested in looking at what is happening in the field, what are the strengths that we're seeing in the monitoring data, and where are the areas where there are findings and why are they and that gives us a chance to kind of retool what webinars we would offer, the materials we develop, and give that direction to the centers.

Then the second piece that I wanted to talk about briefly, is the Regional TA. The division also oversees the TTA system. The regional TA contracts, which are managed out of the regional offices, many of you work with regional providers. We've just had a renewal of the system. The main goal of the regional TA folks is to support you, to address challenges, specifically, you know, actually in the Act, it tells us what their role is.

They're supposed to support correcting monitoring findings, which makes sense. School readiness, supporting school readiness, of course, that's our authorizing purpose and a couple other areas. Again, there's not a 1 to 1 with these regional TA folks. The regional office has to prioritize TA.

They provide to you individually, and they also organize when they look at the data and say, well, what are some areas that many of our programs are having challenges with? Then we'll do a group event, maybe a community of practice, maybe a series. They work collaboratively, oftentimes with the national centers to do that. Those are a couple of ways.

Of course, to support ongoing continuous improvement, which I think you heard Faith talk about at the very beginning. All with our shared goal of preparing children and families as they leave us and enter school ready to learn. Those are just a couple of things I wanted to share around how we work together, and how we use the information that is collected. It's important. It helps us retool. That's it. I think I'm going to turn it over to Faith. Thanks, Faith.

Faith: You sure are. Thank you so much, Kate. Thank you, Sharon. Appreciate that. We wanted to share with you, some of the resources that are available to you to support you in the review process. If you go to HeadStart.gov and you search federal monitoring, you'll find a hub of materials available to you. It includes the introduction to monitoring the FY26 monitoring protocols and there's a link to the Virtual Expo.

These resources are designed to help make the process more transparent and to give you practical tools and examples that you can get to support your program before, during, and after your review. We encourage you to bookmark the page and revisit often as new materials are added.

The next resource is the Virtual Expo. It's a key resource for recipients. This online space brings together everything you need to prepare for your monitoring review. Inside you'll find dedicated sections for Focus Area 1, Focus Area 2, CLASS reviews, and RAN, and Follow-up reviews. Each section includes practical tools, guidance, and examples to support your preparation.

We have put that link into the chat and when you go there, a page comes up. It says FY26, AMS 2.0 Virtual Expo. Then there's two sides, one that says need to register. If you don't have an account you can register. Just put your email in there and a password and you're in. Anyone can access the Virtual Expo. If you already have one, you'll just go to the email address, enter that and then your password, and then you're in. There you'll be able to have access to resources that you can revisit throughout the year.

Cynthia: We say thank you. So glad you were all able to make it out today and join us for this webinar. Hope you have a great year!