Extracted text (via pymupdf)
2839 characters
Human Services Department Early Education Division 2150-1 S Country Club Drive, Suite 7 Mesa, AZ 85210 Maricopa County Human Services Department Early Education Division Andrea Harvey Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start 90 7th Street, 9th Floor San Francisco, CA 94103 Joanna Chan Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Office of Grants Management, Region IX 90th Street, Suite 9-100 San Francisco, CA 94103 February 28, 2022 Award No. 09CH012079 Dear Program Specialists, Non-Federal Share is a statutory requirement of the Head Start Act in section 640(b). As stated in the Act, a grantee agency must provide 20 percent of the total costs of the Head Start program through Non-Federal match unless a waiver has been granted. The Maricopa County Head Start program has successfully collected $715,186.39 (14%) of the required $4,801,914 and projects to collect a total of $1,285,186 by June 30, 2022 of Non-Federal share. MCHSD is respectfully s requesting a waiver as follows: • Head Start and Early Head Start Reduction/Waiver of 73% of the NFS in the amount of $3,516,728 for the funding period of July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022. The following relevant circumstances, as outlined in the Head Start Act Section 640(b) have affected the program's ability to collect the required full amount. • The Head Start agency is located in a community adversely affected by a major disaster Human Services Department Early Education Division 2150-1 S Country Club Drive, Suite 7 Mesa, AZ 85210 Maricopa County Human Services Department Early Education Division During FY 21-22, the state of Arizona and Maricopa County experienced significant spikes in positive COVID – cases. The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID 19 benchmarks for local schools and childcare facilities demonstrate moderate to high positivity rates. In addition, due to the ongoing spikes in positive covid cases, the recruitment of qualified teaching staff was adversely affected. MCHSD did not meet enrollment expectations due to local and statewide shortages of teaching staff which reduced the number of families available to generate volunteer hours. The program will continue to track and monitor progress towards meeting the NFS requirement and adjust as needed through alternative strategies. This waiver request and accompanying budget revision documentation was approved by the governing bodies as reflected in the approval statement. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the NFS waiver, please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Eve Del Real, M.Ed. Assistant Director, Maricopa County Human Services