QUALITY STANDARDS.

SEC. 108. QUALITY STANDARDS. (a) Quality Standards.—Section 641A(a) of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9836a(a)) is amended— (1) in paragraph (1)— 112 STAT. 2714 (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting “, including minimum levels of overall accomplishment,” after “regulation standards”; (B) in subparagraph (A), by striking “education,”; (C) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) through (D) as subparagraphs (C) through (E), respectively; and (D) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following: “(B)(i) education performance standards to ensure the school readiness of children participating in a Head Start program, on completion of the Head Start program and prior to entering school; and “(ii) additional education performance standards to ensure that the children participating in the program, at a minimum— “(I) develop phonemic, print, and numeracy awareness; “(II) understand and use language to communicate for various purposes; “(III) understand and use increasingly complex and varied vocabulary; “(IV) develop and demonstrate an appreciation of books; and “(V) in the case of non–English background children, progress toward acquisition of the English language.”; (2) by striking paragraph (2); (3) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as paragraphs (2) and (3), respectively; (4) in paragraph (2) (as redesignated in paragraph (3))— (A) in subparagraph (B)(iii), by striking “child” and inserting “early childhood education and”; and (B) in subparagraph (C)— (i) in clause (i)— (I) by striking “not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section,”; and (II) by striking “section 651(b)” and all that follows and inserting “this subsection; and”; and (ii) in subclause (ii), by striking “November 2, 1978” and inserting “the date of enactment of the Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998”; and (5) in paragraph (3) (as redesignated in paragraph (3)), by striking “to an agency (referred to in this subchapter as the ‘delegate agency’)” and inserting “to a delegate agency”, (b) Performance Measures.—Section 641A(b) of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9836a(b)) is amended— (1) in the heading, by inserting “Results-Based.” before “Performance ”; (2) in paragraph (1)— (A) by striking “Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, the” and inserting “The”; (B) by striking “child” and inserting “early childhood education and”; (C) by inserting before “(referred” the following: “, and the impact of the services provided through the programs to children and their families”; and 112 STAT. 2715 (D) by striking “performance measures” and inserting “results–based performance measures”; and (3) in paragraph (2)— (A) in the paragraph heading, by striking “Design ” and inserting “Characteristics ”; (B) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking “shall be designed—” and inserting “shall—”; (C) in subparagraph (A), by striking “to assess” and inserting “be used to assess the impact of”; (D) in subparagraph (B)— (i) by striking “to”; (ii) by striking “and peer review” and inserting “, peer review, and program evaluation”; and (iii) by inserting “, not later than July 1, 1999” before the semicolon; (E) in subparagraph (C), by inserting “be developed” before “for other”; and (F) by adding at the end the following: “The performance measures shall include the performance standards described in subsection (a)(1)(B)(ii).”; (4) in paragraph (3)(A), by striking “and by region” and inserting “, regionally, and locally”; and (5) by adding at the end the following: “(4) Educational performance measures.—Such results based performance measures shall include educational performance measures that ensure that children participating in Head Start programs— “(A) know that letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named; “(B) recognize a word as a unit of print; “(C) identify at least 10 letters of the alphabet; and “(D) associate sounds with written words. “(5) Additional local results-based performance measures.—In addition to other applicable results-based performance measures, Head Start agencies may establish local results-based educational performance measures.”. (c) Monitoring.—Section 641A(c) of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9836a(c)) is amended— (1) in paragraph (1), by inserting “and results-based performance measures developed by the Secretary under subsection (b)” after “standards established under this subchapter”; and (2) in paragraph (2)— (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking “and” at the end; (B) in subparagraph (C)— (i) by inserting “(including children with disabilities)” after “eligible children”; and (ii) by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and (C) by adding at the end the following: “(D) include as part of the reviews of the programs, a review and assessment of program effectiveness, as measured in accordance with the results-based performance measures developed by the Secretary pursuant to subsection (b) and with the performance standards established pursuant to subparagraphs (A) and (B) of subsection (a)(1); and 112 STAT. 2716 “(E) seek information from the communities and the States involved about the performance of the programs and the efforts of the Head Start agencies to collaborate with other entities carrying out early childhood education and child care programs in the community.”. (d) Termination.—Section 641A(d) of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9836a(d)) is amended— (1) in paragraph (1)— (A) by inserting “or results–based performance measures developed by the Secretary under subsection (b)” after “subsection (a)”; and (B) by amending subparagraph (B) to read as follows: “(B) with respect to each identified deficiency, require the agency— “(i) to correct the deficiency immediately, if the Secretary finds that the deficiency threatens the health or safety of staff or program participants or poses a threat to the integrity of Federal funds; “(ii) to correct the deficiency not later than 90 days after the identification of the deficiency if the Secretary finds, in the discretion of the Secretary, that such a 90–day period is reasonable, in light of the nature and magnitude of the deficiency; or “(iii) in the discretion of the Secretary (taking into consideration the seriousness of the deficiency and the time reasonably required to correct the deficiency), to comply with the requirements of paragraph (2) concerning a quality improvement plan; and”; and (2) in paragraph (2)(A), in the matter preceding clause (i), by striking “able to correct a deficiency immediately” and inserting “required to correct a deficiency immediately or during a 90–day period under clause (i) or (ii) of paragraph (1)(B)”. (e) Report.—Section 641A(e) of the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9836a(e)) is amended by adding at the end the following: “Such report shall be widely disseminated and available for public review in both written and electronic formats.”.