Head Start Agencies Adjust to Federal Salary Cap

Last year, congressional lawmakers outraged by scattered reports of six-figure salaries for Head Start administrators put in place a cap on how much employees of the federal preschool education program could be paid. This year, federal and local officials are figuring out how to make the pay limit work.

Guidance from the Department of Health and Human Service’s Administration for Children and Families, which oversees Head Start, is expected soon to direct local grantees on how to implement the salary cap.

In a field where instructors are notoriously underpaid, the cap won’t be much of an issue for most Head Start programs. But for those that shell out big bucks to their local Head Start leaders, the limit should be taken seriously now, said Windy M. Hill, the Health and Human Services Department’s associate commissioner in charge of...