When purchasing this program you will have streaming access for 30 days. If you are interested in the extended access version, click here to register.

In light of the recently released second round of Head Start/ Early Head Start Recompetition Notices, The Head Start Legal Advisory Service is holding a 2-Part Webinar to help your program get ready to write a strong grant application.  The Funding Opportunity Announcements ("FOAs") for recompetition are different than prior FOAs from years past.  

When purchasing this program you will have streaming access for 6 months. If you are interested in the regular version, click here to register.

In light of the recently released second round of Head Start/ Early Head Start Recompetition Notices, The Head Start Legal Advisory Service is holding a 2-Part Webinar to help your program get ready to write a strong grant application.  The Funding Opportunity Announcements ("FOAs") for recompetition are different than prior FOAs from years past.  

• changes made from the draft NPRM to the final rule;
• the seven triggering events for Recompetition; and
• timelines for each.
  

• Articulate the who, what, why, when and how of internal investigations;
• Appraise factors to consider when you need to begin an internal investigation; and
• Identify the significance and challenges of making disclosures, including legal ramifications.

• Explain why compliance matters;
• Identify the 7 elements of a compliance program; and
• Use our tips about what works and what doesn’t.

• The purpose of government audit and their elements;
• The limits of OIG authority; and
• The process for challenging audit findings, including administrative appeals and formal legal action.
  

Head Start governance has always been complicated. Ever since the Head Start Act was amended, it is more important than ever to get right.  Head Start and Early Head Start staff need to understand it too, because much of the oversight and internal monitoring programs need to do starts and ends with the Board and the Policy Council.

At the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

• Recognize the unique roles and responsibilities of the governing Board and Policy Council;
• Develop a plan to deal with Composition requirements and Conflicts of Interests; and
• Verify whether your program is in compliance (and if not, how to get there!).

Who Should Attend: Head Start Management, and staff assisting Boards and Policy Council.

Many Head Start and Early Head Start programs have numerous funding streams, such as federal Head Start funds, Recovery Act dollars, and state funding, to name but a few.  With the myriad funding sources that programs juggle, following the federal rules for cost allocation carefully and appropriately has never been more important.  If your program fails to follow these rules correctly, monitoring findings, cost disallowances, and additional penalties can result.  Don't let any of these happen to your program! This on-demand webinar covers:

• What are common challenges with blended funding;
• What are the cost allocation basics; and
• Why should it matter to you.

Some of the questions addressed during this webinar:

1. Do we have to use Personal Activity Reports to allocate salaries or just to support the allocations of salaries?
2. What if we just show on time sheets the number of hours that each person spends on each program - is this okay or must we document the specific activity?
3. Must we do a cost allocation if we have an indirect cost rate?

Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Program Directors, CFOs, and others involved in planning or accounting, but all are welcome.

• Address issues surrounding the 15% administrative cost cap;
• Set straight how your agency deals with insurance and bonding requirements;
• Verify how best to handle bonuses and incentive compensation; and
• Handle fundraising to be within the bounds of federal grants law.

Who Should Attend: CFOs, Fiscal Staff, Human Resources Staff, Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, but all are welcome.

• What is a Grant Program?;
• What Terms and Conditions Apply to Me, including what's buried in the FAA?;
• Six Core Grant Administration Concepts that You Should Know;
• Five Common Themes in DAB Cases that You Should Really Know; and
• Thoughts on Compliance Strategies.
  

1. You talked about budget flexibility, but also explained that expenditures cannot go beyond the scope of the project.  So how much leeway does the grantee have?
2. You spoke about how important sufficient documentation is - can you elaborate on the types of things auditors will need to see in a grantee's file?
3. Is it necessary for all Head Start grantees to earn program income?
   

When purchasing this program you will have streaming access for 30 days. If you are interested in the extended access version, click here to register.

In light of the recently released second round of Head Start/ Early Head Start Recompetition Notices, The Head Start Legal Advisory Service is holding a 2-Part Webinar to help your program get ready to write a strong grant application.  The Funding Opportunity Announcements ("FOAs") for recompetition are different than prior FOAs from years past.  

Head Start programs are required to provide a 20% match of non-federal funds for the operation of their programs.  This match (or "non-federal share") applies to regular Head Start and Early Head Start funds, as well as those received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Year in and year out, non-federal share is an ongoing trouble area for programs.  At the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

• Distinguish what items and services your program can count as match;
• Recognize how to document matching share;
• Reinforce why showing "overmatch" makes sense; and
• Consider common and not-so-common pitfalls to avoid.

Based on our review of numerous examples from the field, we’ll also discuss what we think your non-federal share documentation forms should look like.

Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, Fiscal Staff, and Management Team, but anyone is welcome.

• What reporting requirements are for both grantees and delegates;
• Deadlines for reporting;
• Consequences of reporting mistakes;
  
• Tips to ensure compliance;
• Details of Recovery Act reporting guidance, including important ACF guidance that may change your job counts; and
• The correct reporting codes needed for your Head Start ARRA reporting.
  

1. What part of the report should include our in-kind match?
2. In our program, under ARRA all the Early Head Start and Head Start employees are receiving a temporary COLA and quality improvement funds quarterly. Are all of us defined as a "funded job"?
3. What does a program do in terms of reporting on an employee that started in the middle of the quarter?
   

• Building positive relationships between grantees and delegates;
• The myth of creating "Partnerships" under federal grant rules;
• Delegate agency agreements and what should be in them; and
• Common pitfalls to avoid.
  

Procurements with Federal grant funds come with specific requirements to ensure that contracting costs are not disallowed.  Some of the key elements are conducting competitive procurements, performing cost and price analyses, and avoiding conflicts of interest.

At the end of this webinar, you’ll be able to:

• Review the processes involved in procuring goods and services with federal funds;
• Delineate items for inclusion in your procurement policies and procedures; and
• Articulate the specifics needed for inclusion in Codes of Conduct.

Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, CFOs and Fiscal Staff, other senior staff, but all are welcome.

• changes made from the draft NPRM to the final rule;
• the seven triggering events for Recompetition; and
• timelines for each.
  

Many Head Start and Early Head Start programs have numerous funding streams, such as federal Head Start funds and state funding, to name but a few.  With the myriad funding sources that programs juggle, following the federal rules for cost allocation carefully and appropriately has never been more important.  If your program fails to follow these rules correctly, monitoring findings, cost disallowances, and additional penalties can result.  

In addition, charging the costs of employee time to specific federal grants can be onerous.  But doing it right - that is, following proper requirements and ensuring proper oversight - is critical.  Unfortunately, this continues to be an area in which we see a lot of findings, both from ACF Head Start monitoring, as well as OIG audits.

Use this training to double check your practices to help you avoid significant cost disallowances. At the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

• Identify requirements for Time and Effort Reporting, including the 4 necessary elements for time sheets;
• Analyze common timesheet problems;
• Improve how your organization does cost allocation; and
• Justify why all of this should matter to you.

We'll also include a sample timesheet that we recommend using. 

Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Program Directors, CFOs, and others involved in planning or accounting activities, but all are welcome to attend.

• Who, What, Where, When, Why and How: Basics of Head Start Eligibility
• Understanding Special Rules for Special Populations (AI/AN, homeless, priority rules)
• Documentation and Compliance Strategies 
• Errors and Omissions: what you should worry about and what you shouldn't

ACF's Program Instruction HS-10-02, Income Eligibility for Enrollment, addresses how Head Start employees must determine and verify income eligibility.  The PI states that programs "should provide annual training to employees responsible for determining and verifying income eligibility and to ensure that those employees are fully aware of the consequences established by the grantee for employees who knowingly sign a verification form that contains false information."

This topic is of special importance - in fact, programs continue to receive additional scrutiny about their eligibility practices from Congress, the Government Accountability Office, the HHS Office of Inspector General, and the Office of Head Start. Just a few years ago, the GAO did undercover testing and wrote a report on its findings; this summer, the HHS OIG published a report on ACF’s oversight of Head Start eligibility practices.   In the wake of continued Congressional and Departmental scrutiny, now is the time to make sure your staff is determining eligibility correctly.

This session will help your program comply with the often-confusing eligibility rules, and ensure that all of your employees who determine eligibility get needed training.  We'll cover not only the basics of the Head Start eligibility process, but also discuss the consequences of knowing violations of the eligibility rules.  At the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

• Describe what the Head Start eligibility rules are (and, which are mandatory or optional);
• Observe where the pitfalls lie for your program in determining eligibility (including reviewing eligibility documents and signing income verification forms); and
• Verify if your program is in compliance with the requirements of the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act, PIs, and the Head Start Policy Clarifications.
  

 Tips for best practices will be included and your questions will be addressed.

Who Should Attend:  Eligibility Workers, Eligibility Managers, ERSEA staff, Executive Directors, Head Start program Directors, and other senior staff, but all are welcome.

• Read actual questions in the new tool on ERSEA and related subjects as the lawyers do (and see what to watch out for);
• List pitfalls that reviewers often look for; and
• Improve your ideas about documenting issues to "prove up" your compliance.

• Read actual questions in the new tool on fiscal management as the lawyers do (and see what to watch out for);
• List pitfalls that reviewers often look for; and
• Improve your ideas about documenting issues to "prove up" your compliance.

New For the FY 2013 Protocol (Subject to Change, depending on the Protocol’s Changes)

Head Start monitoring results have major legal ramifications for your program.  It’s always been important to get things right, but now with re-competition as the backdrop for providing high quality services, it’s more important than ever. This webinar covers the legal perspective on monitoring (an important perspective because findings have legal significance to your program’s operations).  This webinar has a special focus on the Governance and Management Systems of the OHS Monitoring protocol.

At the end of this webinar, you’ll be able to:

• Read actual questions in the new tool on governance and management systems as the lawyers do (and see what to watch out for);
• List pitfalls that reviewers often look for; and
• Improve your ideas about documenting issues to "prove up" your compliance.

Please note: this webinar covers only governance and management systems questions.  Please see our other Monitoring webinars for other key parts of the Monitoring Protocol.

Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, CFOs and Fiscal Staff, but all are welcome.

Are you new to Head Start or Early Head Start?  Or have you not undergone a review in a while?  If so, it's important to understand that Head Start programs must undergo federal programmatic monitoring at least once every three years.  In addition, two things have  changed the landscape: 1) OHS has increased the number of unannounced reviews in which the monitoring team shows up at your program unexpectedly and 2) the monitoring review process is now linked to re-competition.

At the end of this webinar, you will be able to:

• Communicate the nuts and bolts of the monitoring process (and where the big picture changes have occurred);
• Improve how your monitoring review goes, based on our advice and ideas; and
• Determine which tips on how to handle an "unannounced" review you want to use.

Please note: this webinar does not walk you through the OHS Monitoring Protocol. If you are interested in detailed discussions of parts of this year's Protocol, please see our other Monitoring Series webinars.

Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, and Management Team, but all are welcome.

• More clearly review your report and know the clues to look for;
• Use our tips on how to develop and strengthen your Quality Improvement Plans; and
• Determine how best to document and “prove up” your compliance to “clear” your findings.

• Delineate pre-employment requirements, such as recruitment and selection procedures and health exams;
• Follow the hiring process, including steps and tips;
• Recognize best practices during employment, such as performance reviews and training/development; and
• Determine how to fire in Head Start, including learning the steps on "how to."

• Identify problematic social media situations that could pose challenges for their organization;
• Explain what should be in a social media policy; and
• Demonstrate knowledge of language in existing social media policies that have been found to be overly broad.

• Distinguish what needs to be in your Head Start personnel policies, (and use our tips);
• Assess the ins and outs of your employment Standards of Conduct (by utilizing our  checklists); and
• Identify issues surrounding staff qualifications and timelines.

• Identify from an HR perspective what to do if an ADA issue arises;
• Distinguish key points of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other employment laws involving discrimination (and know where to look for these rules); and
• Formulate how to analyze issues under the Family Medical Leave Act.

• Shared Governance
  • Roles of Board and Policy Council
  • General Responsibilities of Board and Policy Council

• Specific Responsibilities of Board and Policy Council

• Composition Requirements of Both Bodies
  

• How to Handle Potential Conflicts of Interest

• Board/Policy Council Self Evaluation
  • Why it matters and how to do it
  • Considerations for whether your Policy Council should do this as well
    

• How best to conduct Board or Policy council meetings;
  • Including tips on process; and
  • When and how to use Executive Sessions

• Best Practices for Meeting Minutes

• Creating an Annual Board or Policy Council Work Plan
  

• Discuss Information Memorandum, Accessing Professional Medical and Dental Services (ACF-IM-HS-09-05) and some of its suggestions;
• In the context of the new health reform law, learn more about Section 330 funded Federally Qualified Health Centers’ (“FQHCs”) model of care and expected increase in funding over the next few years; and
  
• Consider how your agency might be able to work with one in your area or whether your agency could become an FQHC.

• Identify problematic social media situations that could pose challenges for their organization;
• Explain what should be in a social media policy; and
• Demonstrate knowledge of language in existing social media policies that have been found to be overly broad.