[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 45, Volume 4]
[Revised as of October 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 45CFR1305.4]

[Page 202-203]
 
                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE
 
CHAPTER XIII--OFFICE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 
                           AND HUMAN SERVICES
 
PART 1305--ELIGIBILITY, RECRUITMENT, SELECTION, ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE IN HEAD START--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 1305.4  Age of children and family income eligibility.

    (a) To be eligible for Head Start services, a child must be at least 
three years old by the date used to determine eligibility for public 
school in the community in which the Head Start program is located, 
except in cases where the Head Start program's approved grant provides 
specific authority to serve younger children. Examples of such 
exceptions are programs serving children of migrant families and Early 
Head Start programs.
    (b)(1) At least 90 percent of the children who are enrolled in each 
Head Start program must be from low-income families.
    (2) Except as provided in paragraph (b)(3) of this section, up to 
ten percent of the children who are enrolled may be children from 
families that exceed the low-income guidelines but who meet the criteria 
that the program has established for selecting such children and who 
would benefit from Head Start services.
    (3) A Head Start program operated by an Indian Tribe may enroll more 
than ten percent of its children from families whose incomes exceed the 
low-income guidelines when the following conditions are met:
    (i) All children from Indian and non-Indian families living on the 
reservation that meet the low-income guidelines who wish to be enrolled 
in Head Start are served by the program;
    (ii) All children from income-eligible Indian families native to the 
reservation living in non-reservation areas, approved as part of the 
Tribe's service area, who wish to be enrolled in Head Start are served 
by the program. In those instances in which the non-reservation area is 
not served by another Head Start program, the Tribe must serve all of 
the income-eligible Indian and non-Indian children whose families wish 
to enroll them in Head Start prior to serving over-income children.
    (iii) The Tribe has the resources within its Head Start grant or 
from other non-Federal sources to enroll children from families whose 
incomes exceed the low-income guidelines without using additional funds 
from HHS intended to expand Head Start services; and
    (iv) At least 51 percent of the children to be served by the program 
are from families that meet the income-eligibility guidelines.
    (4) Programs which meet the conditions of paragraph (b)(3) of this 
section

[[Page 203]]

must annually set criteria that are approved by the Policy Council and 
the Tribal Council for selecting over-income children who would benefit 
from such a program.
    (c) The family income must be verified by the Head Start program 
before determining that a child is eligible to participate in the 
program.
    (d) Verification must include examination of any of the following: 
Individual Income Tax Form 1040, W-2 forms, pay stubs, pay envelopes, 
written statements from employers, or documentation showing current 
status as recipients of public assistance.
    (e) A signed statement by an employee of the Head Start program, 
identifying which of these documents was examined and stating that the 
child is eligible to participate in the program, must be maintained to 
indicate that income verification has been made.

[57 FR 46725, Oct. 9, 1992, as amended at 63 FR 12658, Mar. 16, 1998]