Download a PDF of the story as it appeared in print
in the Kenosha News.

By Jessica Fryman

Kenosha’s Head Start program will double in size next year.

Amid national and state issues facing the federally funded preschool program, the Kenosha Unified School District will increase the number of locations to eight next year, and officials say a local study shows the Unified program’s benefi ts are longer lasting than the national trend suggests.

So it’s business as usual for the four Kenosha Head Start centers, while programs nationwide, including
at least two in Wisconsin, are under investigation for fraud allegations that include manipulating
income reports, over-reporting the number of enrollees and encouraging families to say they are homeless when they are not.

“The district is not doing anything out of the ordinary because we have our guidelines, the guidelines are
adhered to, and the program has and continues to be very, very successful,” said Gary Vaillancourt, a spokesman for the district.

Investigation launched
The U.S. Government Accountability Office launched an undercover investigation of Head Start in several states after receiving a tip reporting fraud in the Midwest and Texas. The investigation
found two instances of fraud in Wisconsin, according to the GAO report last month.

In both cases, a Head Start associate said she chose only to report one guardian’s income, so the family would qualify for the program, the GAO reported. The changes meant disregarding more than $23,000 worth of income to allow the investigation’s fictitious families to meet eligibility requirements.

The majority of Head Start centers surveyed nationwide for the investigation had lengthy waiting lists, although several programs allegedly manipulated information to allow ineligible families into the program, according to the GAO. One Texas program has as many as 1,600 children on a waiting list.

The GAO reported it was likely that ineligible students are enrolled in Head Start while many eligible children, who live below the poverty line and receive other federally funded assistance, are waiting.

“In Wisconsin and other parts of the country, many programs receive more applications than they can
accept, and we are committed to ensuring that only eligible families secure opportunities for these much-needed services,” a statement from the Wisconsin Head Start Association said.

Across the nation, some violations included falsifying information that allowed families into the program who make more than triple the income requirements, the GAO report said. At some centers, enrollment procedures were disregarded.

In other cases, Head Start employees told the investigators’ undercover families, “We see this, but we don’t see this,” and, “That’s your business,” regarding income.

At one center, an employee admitted that if nine more children did not enroll that week, the center might have to make staff cuts.

The GAO is still investigating its findings and allegations.

The Department of Health and Human Services is working to create a hotline to report fraud and abuse,
reinforce guidelines and require stricter verifi cation to certify eligibility. It also plans to conduct unannounced and undercover visits to Head Start centers.

Benefits questioned
Although a Head Start impact study showed the program has a positive impact on participants’ school readiness at the end of completing Head Start, those benefits were not present in later years. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported earlier this year that few participants showed effects of the Head Start program by the end of first grade.

Kenosha Unified conducted a local study two years ago and found that participants were still retaining educational benefits in the fifth grade, Vaillancourt said. The study did not test beyond elementary school.

A Wisconsin Head Start Association release emphasizes the program’s shortterm educational benefi ts and states that long-term benefits go beyond education, including participants being less likely to commit crimes and to stay healthier.

This story was originally published in the Kenosha News
on June 14, 2010.