Children in foster care need more than just a child care slot
The Trump administration has proposed major changes to how Head Start programs enroll children, structure classrooms, provide health and family services, and ensure the quality of the services children receive.
特朗普政府提议对启蒙计划如何招收儿童、构建教室、提供健康和家庭服务以及确保儿童获得的服务质量进行重大改变。
Head Start currently provides more than 700,000 children across the U.S. with early education embedded within a broader system of health, developmental, and family engagement support.
Head Start 目前为全美超过 700,000 名儿童提供早期教育，并将其纳入更广泛的健康、发展和家庭参与支持系统中。
Although the overall impacts of Head Start participation remain a subject of debate, there is reason to believe that many children benefit from attending Head Start.
尽管参加启蒙计划的总体影响仍然是一个争论的话题，但有理由相信许多孩子从参加启蒙计划中受益。
This is particularly true for children in foster care: For them and others in nonparental care, there is solid evidence that participation in Head Start leads to improvements in academic skills and fewer behavioral problems.
对于寄养儿童来说尤其如此：对于他们和其他非父母照顾的儿童来说，有确凿的证据表明，参与启蒙计划可以提高学业技能并减少行为问题。
Other research points to longer-term developmental and health benefits, including stronger social skills and more-positive approaches to learning, for these children.
其他研究指出这些孩子的长期发展和健康益处，包括更强的社交技能和更积极的学习方法。
The federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which oversees Head Start, has made improving the foster care system a key priority.
负责监督 Head Start 的联邦儿童和家庭管理局 (ACF) 已将改善寄养系统作为首要任务。
The proposed overhaul of Head Start maintains children in foster care’s categorical eligibility for the program and aims to remove barriers around attendance and program capacity that could limit their access.
拟议的“启蒙计划”改革保留了寄养儿童参与该计划的绝对资格，旨在消除可能限制他们参与的出勤率和计划容量方面的障碍。
But getting children in the door is only half of the challenge.
但让孩子们上门只是挑战的一半。
Proposed changes also weaken protections that help children remain enrolled and requirements that support program quality and service coordination, compromising the very features of Head Start that children in foster care may need most.
拟议的变更还削弱了帮助儿童继续入学的保护措施以及支持项目质量和服务协调的要求，从而损害了寄养儿童可能最需要的启蒙计划的功能。
ACF is right to ask whether federal rules make it harder to serve the needs of children in foster care and their families.
ACF 提出的问题是正确的：联邦规则是否使满足寄养儿童及其家庭的需求变得更加困难。
Despite the documented benefits of Head Start, only about 1 in 5 young children in foster care participate in the program.
尽管 Head Start 的好处已有记录，但只有约五分之一的寄养幼儿参与该计划。
1 Our team looked into why this is.
1 我们的团队研究了其中的原因。
We surveyed over 100 child care providers and spoke with dozens of foster parents, faith-based leaders, and state officials about how to best serve the early care and learning needs of young children in foster care, including through Head Start.
我们调查了 100 多家儿童保育提供者，并与数十名寄养父母、信仰领袖和州官员进行了交谈，讨论如何最好地满足寄养儿童的早期保育和学习需求，包括通过 Head Start。
Many foster families told us they would gladly take more children into their homes if they could be certain that they could quickly find and sustain quality child care for them.
许多寄养家庭告诉我们，如果他们能确定能够快速找到并维持优质的儿童保育服务，他们很乐意收养更多的孩子。
We also heard that the realities of foster care sometimes don’t align with how Head Start programs operate.
我们还听说，寄养的现实有时与启蒙计划的运作方式并不相符。
A child can enter a foster home with little notice at any point in the year.
一年中的任何时候，孩子都可以在不经通知的情况下进入寄养家庭。
Foster parents often need full-day care so they can work outside the home.
寄养父母通常需要全日托，以便他们可以外出工作。
Children may miss days for family visits, court proceedings, therapies, or placement transitions.
儿童可能会错过家人探视、法庭诉讼、治疗或安置过渡的日子。
Head Start programs, though, may have no open slots midyear, typically operate with shorter days and school-year schedules, or have attendance requirements that make it difficult to accommodate children in foster care’s unique schedules.
不过，启蒙计划可能在年中没有空缺名额，通常会在较短的日子和学年时间表中运作，或者有出勤要求，这使得很难在寄养机构的独特时间表中容纳儿童。
The proposed changes include several efforts to decrease costs and burden for programs, including removing federal group size and ratio requirements and reducing some administrative requirements around attendance.
拟议的变更包括降低项目成本和负担的多项努力，包括取消联邦团体规模和比例要求以及减少有关出勤的一些行政要求。
ACF estimates that savings from the proposed changes could allow programs to serve more children, potentially expanding access for children in foster care.
ACF 估计，拟议的变革所节省的资金可以使项目为更多儿童提供服务，从而有可能扩大儿童接受寄养的机会。
Yet these same changes that aim to reduce costs also have implications for the safety and quality of care Head Start children receive, especially when coupled with reductions in other requirements that support program quality through teacher coaching, and staff qualifications.
然而，这些旨在降低成本的变化也对启蒙儿童接受的护理安全和质量产生影响，特别是当与通过教师辅导和员工资格支持项目质量的其他要求相结合时。
For children in foster care, changes to current discipline regulations and support for service coordination are especially concerning, because they undermine the continuity and comprehensiveness that make Head Start especially valuable for this group of children.
对于寄养儿童来说，现行纪律规定的变化和对服务协调的支持尤其令人担忧，因为它们破坏了启蒙计划对这一群体儿童特别有价值的连续性和全面性。
The proposed changes would eliminate Head Start rules that sharply limit suspension and prohibit programs from expelling children because of their behavior.
拟议的修改将取消大幅限制停课的启蒙规则，并禁止项目因儿童的行为而将其开除。
Instead, programs would be permitted to establish their own disciplinary policies, subject to state and local requirements.
相反，项目将被允许根据州和地方的要求制定自己的纪律政策。
Young children in foster care may enter programs carrying the effects of trauma, disrupted relationships, and repeated transitions.
寄养中的幼儿可能会因创伤、关系破裂和反复过渡而进入项目。
These can manifest as challenging behaviors in the classroom.
这些可能表现为课堂上的挑战性行为。
Removing a child from a program because of their behavior does not address their underlying needs but adds yet another disruption in a life that has already known too many.
因为孩子的行为而将其从项目中剔除并不能满足他们的潜在需求，反而会给已经了解太多的生活带来另一种干扰。
Head Start should retain strong protections against suspension and expulsion and help programs respond to challenging behavior with the developmental and mental health supports children in foster care need to be successful in school and their communities.
Head Start 应保留强有力的保护措施，防止停学和开除，并帮助项目应对挑战性行为，支持寄养儿童在学校及其社区取得成功所需的发展和心理健康支持。
The proposed changes would also remove federal guidance on how Head Start programs coordinate with local agencies and community organizations serving foster families and children.
拟议的修改还将取消关于启蒙计划如何与服务寄养家庭和儿童的当地机构和社区组织协调的联邦指导。
Such coordination is essential to the comprehensiveness of Head Start services.
这种协调对于启蒙服务的全面性至关重要。
State and local early childhood systems are far stronger than they were when Head Start began in the 1960s, but effective coordination does not happen automatically.
州和地方的幼儿教育系统比 20 世纪 60 年代启动启蒙计划时要强大得多，但有效的协调不会自动发生。
Head Start programs and child welfare agencies need practical systems for referrals, information sharing, and transitions so that children in foster care don’t lose services when their circumstances change.
启蒙计划和儿童福利机构需要实用的转介、信息共享和过渡系统，以便寄养儿童在情况发生变化时不会失去服务。
Access and continuity of services is only part of the challenge.
服务的访问和连续性只是挑战的一部分。
In our conversations with other public and private community-based and faith-based child care providers, we repeatedly heard how difficult it is for them to meet the range of needs children in foster care bring.
在我们与其他公共和私人社区和信仰儿童保育提供者的对话中，我们多次听到他们满足寄养儿童的一系列需求是多么困难。
For example, one program may provide a safe and nurturing classroom but lack systems and staffing to coordinate with child welfare agencies, therapists, caseworkers, and families when a child’s circumstances suddenly change.
例如，一个项目可能提供一个安全和有教养的教室，但缺乏系统和人员来在孩子的情况突然发生变化时与儿童福利机构、治疗师、个案工作者和家庭进行协调。
Another provider may be deeply connected to foster families in the community but lack staff with the needed expertise in mental health or developmental disabilities to integrate children in foster care into their classrooms.
另一家提供者可能与社区中的寄养家庭有着密切的联系，但缺乏具备心理健康或发育障碍方面所需专业知识的工作人员，无法将寄养儿童融入课堂。
Head Start is different.
领先优势是不同的。
Its value for children in foster care is not simply that it provides another child care option.
它对寄养儿童的价值不仅仅在于它提供了另一种儿童保育选择。
It’s that Head Start brings early learning together with health, mental health, developmental, and family supports within a single program.
Head Start 将早期学习与健康、心理健康、发展和家庭支持结合在一个计划中。
Maintaining federal support for this coordination and allowing for associated administrative expenses is essential.
维持联邦政府对这种协调的支持并允许相关的管理费用至关重要。
For young children whose lives have been shaped by adversity and instability, Head Start’s comprehensiveness and continuity matters.
对于生活受到逆境和不稳定影响的幼儿来说，Head Start 的全面性和连续性很重要。
For foster parents trying to navigate child welfare agencies, courts, health care providers, therapists, schools, and other systems, asking them to assemble those supports themselves is an inadequate substitute for Head Start’s coordinated services.
对于试图在儿童福利机构、法院、医疗保健提供者、治疗师、学校和其他系统中寻求帮助的养父母来说，要求他们自己收集这些支持并不足以替代 Head Start 的协调服务。
And for all Head Start children, including those in foster care, the proposed changes to remove federal requirements around group size and ratios, teacher coaching, quality monitoring, and staff qualifications risk weakening important mechanisms Head Start programs use to support the quality classroom experiences that help children succeed.
对于所有启蒙儿童（包括寄养儿童）而言，拟议的修改旨在取消联邦对团体规模和比例、教师辅导、质量监控和员工资格等方面的要求，这可能会削弱启蒙计划用于支持帮助儿童成功的优质课堂体验的重要机制。
It is reasonable to examine whether Head Start regulations continue to best serve the needs of children and families.
检查启蒙法规是否继续最好地满足儿童和家庭的需求是合理的。
Yet, given ACF’s commitment to supporting children in foster care, it is critical to distinguish between regulations that create unnecessary barriers and the standards and infrastructure that make Head Start such an important resource for foster families.
然而，鉴于 ACF 致力于支持寄养儿童，区分那些造成不必要障碍的法规和使 Head Start 成为寄养家庭重要资源的标准和基础设施至关重要。
As it develops a final rule, ACF should preserve greater flexibility where it improves access and continuity while maintaining protections against suspension and expulsion, comprehensive services and coordination, and strong supports for instructional quality and staff expertise.
在制定最终规则时，ACF 应保持更大的灵活性，以改善准入和连续性，同时保持针对停学和开除的保护、全面的服务和协调以及对教学质量和员工专业知识的强有力支持。
The goal should not simply be to create more slots for children in foster care, but to ensure that when they arrive, they receive the supports they need to thrive.
我们的目标不应该只是为寄养儿童创造更多的名额，而是要确保他们到达时能够获得成长所需的支持。