[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 45, Volume 4]
[Revised as of October 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 45CFR1305.3]

[Page 146-148]
 
                        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 
 
Sec.  1305.3  Determining community strengths and needs.

    (a) Each Early Head Start grantee and Head Start grantee must 
identify

[[Page 147]]

its proposed service area in its Head Start grant application and define 
it by county or sub-county area, such as a municipality, town or census 
tract or a federally-recognized Indian reservation. With regard to 
Indian Tribes, the service area may include areas designated as near-
reservation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) or, in the absence of 
such a designation, a Tribe may propose to define its service area to 
include nearby areas where Indian children and families native to the 
reservation reside, provided that the service area is approved by the 
Tribe's governing council. Where the service area of a Tribe includes a 
non-reservation area, and that area is also served by another Head Start 
grantee, the Tribe will be authorized to serve children from families 
native to the reservation residing in the non-reservation area as well 
as children from families residing on the reservation.
    (b) The grantee's service area must be approved, in writing, by the 
responsible HHS official in order to assure that the service area is of 
reasonable size and, except in situations where a near-reservation 
designation or other expanded service area has been approved for a 
Tribe, does not overlap with that of other Head Start grantees.
    (c) Each Early Head Start and Head Start grantee must conduct a 
Community Assessment within its service area once every three years. The 
Community Assessment must include the collection and analysis of the 
following information about the grantee's Early Head Start or Head Start 
area:
    (1) The demographic make-up of Head Start eligible children and 
families, including their estimated number, geographic location, and 
racial and ethnic composition;
    (2) Other child development and child care programs that are serving 
Head Start eligible children, including publicly funded State and local 
preschool programs, and the approximate number of Head Start eligible 
children served by each;
    (3) The estimated number of children with disabilities four years 
old or younger, including types of disabilities and relevant services 
and resources provided to these children by community agencies;
    (4) Data regarding the education, health, nutrition and social 
service needs of Head Start eligible children and their families;
    (5) The education, health, nutrition and social service needs of 
Head Start eligible children and their families as defined by families 
of Head Start eligible children and by institutions in the community 
that serve young children;
    (6) Resources in the community that could be used to address the 
needs of Head Start eligible children and their families, including 
assessments of their availability and accessibility.
    (d) The Early Head Start and Head Start grantee and delegate agency 
must use information from the Community Assessment to:
    (1) Help determine the grantee's philosophy, and its long-range and 
short-range program objectives;
    (2) Determine the type of component services that are most needed 
and the program option or options that will be implemented;
    (3) Determine the recruitment area that will be served by the 
grantee, if limitations in the amount of resources make it impossible to 
serve the entire service area.
    (4) If there are delegate agencies, determine the recruitment area 
that will be served by the grantee and the recruitment area that will be 
served by each delegate agency.
    (5) Determine appropriate locations for centers and the areas to be 
served by home-based programs; and
    (6) Set criteria that define the types of children and families who 
will be given priority for recruitment and selection.
    (e) In each of the two years following completion of the Community 
Assessment the grantee must conduct a review to determine whether there 
have been significant changes in the information described in paragraph 
(b) of this section. If so, the Community Assessment must be updated and 
the decisions described in paragraph (c) of this section must be 
reconsidered.
    (f) The recruitment area must include the entire service area, 
unless the resources available to the Head Start grantee are inadequate 
to serve the entire service area.

[[Page 148]]

    (g) In determining the recruitment area when it does not include the 
entire service area, the grantee must:
    (1) Select an area or areas that are among those having the greatest 
need for Early Head Start or Head Start services as determined by the 
Community Assessment; and
    (2) Include as many Head Start eligible children as possible within 
the recruitment area, so that:
    (i) The greatest number of Head Start eligible children can be 
recruited and have an opportunity to be considered for selection and 
enrollment in the Head Start program, and
    (ii), the Head Start program can enroll the children and families 
with the greatest need for its services.

(The information collection requirements are approved by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) under OMB Control Number 0970-0124 for 
paragraphs (b) and (d).)

[57 FR 46725, Oct. 9, 1992, as amended at 61 FR 57226, Nov. 5, 1996; 63 
FR 2314, Jan. 15, 1998; 63 FR 12657, Mar. 16, 1998]