Head Start and Human Services Amendments of 1984

Head Start and Human Services Amendments of 1984 - Title I: Project Head Start - Amends the Head Start Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary, for purposes of this title) to administer Project Head Start through the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Makes technical amendments to such Act.

Authorizes appropriations for the Head Start program for FY 1985 through 1986.

Requires the Secretary to reserve for training and technical assistance for each fiscal year funds which are not less than the amount spent for such activities under such Act in FY 1982.

Prohibits funds reserved for discretionary payments by the Secretary under such Act from being combined with funds appropriated under any other Act if the purposes of combining funds is to make a single discretionary grant or a single discretionary payment.

Authorizes the Secretary to designate a Head Start agency from among qualified applicants in a community if there is no Head Start agency or program serving such community. Requires that any such designation be governed by the program and fiscal requirements, criteria, and standards applicable on September 1, 1983, to then existing Head Start agencies. Requires that specified provisions relating to designation of Head Start agencies be carried out in FY 1985 and 1986 in accordance with the rules issued under such provisions by the Secretary as in effect on September 1, 1983.

Prohibits the Secretary from making any change in the method, as in effect on April 25, 1984, of calculating income used to prescribe eligibility for the participation of persons in Head Start programs if such change would result in any reduction in, or exclusion from, participation of persons in any such programs. Prohibits any such change during the period from the date of enactment of this Act to October 1, 1986, unless such a change is specifically authorized in any Federal statute enacted after such date of enactment.

Permits each Head Start program operated in a community to provide services to any eligible child for any period from age three to the age of compulsory school attendance in the State where the program operates.

Requires the Secretary to provide technical assistance and training in connection with Head Start programs. (Under current law, the Secretary is authorized to provide such assistance and training.) Requires that such training activities include: (1) a national child development associate training and assessment program providing the necessary credentials for such personnel; and (2) training, including resource access projects, which improves the ability of such personnel to provide Head Start services to handicapped children.

Prohibits funds for Head Start research, demonstration, and pilot projects from being combined with funds available to carry out any other provision of law if the purpose of combining funds is to make a single discretionary grant or a single discretionary payment to a recipient of such funds.

Prohibits any revision in Head Start performance standards which would result in either the elimination of, or the reduction in the scope of, types of health, education, parent involvement, social, or other services required by the performance standards issued by the Secretary as in effect on November 2, 1978.

Title II: Follow Through Programs - Amends the Follow Through Act to authorize appropriations for such program for FY 1985 and 1986.

Requires the Secretary of Education (the Secretary, for purposes of this title) to provide financial assistance for research, demonstration, and pilot projects relating to the Follow Through program. (Under current law, the Secretary is authorized to provide such assistance.) Requires that such projects be designed to test or assist in the development of new approaches or methods that will aid in overcoming the special problems of primarily low-income children previously enrolled in Head Start or similar programs to develop to their full potential in kindergarten and the primary grades.

Directs the Secretary to provide for a review and analysis of all previous evaluations and reports made in connection with all Follow Through programs and projects authorized by any Act of Congress in effect after August 20, 1964, and to provide a comprehensive evaluative report. Requires that such report measure the impact of such programs and projects in specified ways. Permits such review to be conducted only by persons who are not directly involved in the development, design, administration, or implementation of such programs and projects. Requires that such report be submitted to the President and Congress by January 30, 1986.

Makes a technical amendment which repeals the applicability of specified Head Start Act provisions to the Follow Through Act.

Adds provisions for child care information and referral services to the Follow Through Act. (Entitles such provisions the "Child Care Information and Referral Services Act.")

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, to make grants to assist public or private nonprofit organizations to establish and operate community-based child care information and referral centers.

Sets forth grant application requirements.

Requires that grant recipients be selected through a competitive process, taking into consideration the demonstrated ability of applicants to provide such services, and giving priority to applicants for grants of less than $75,000.

Requires an applicant to make specified assurances, including an assurance that it shall obtain the following percentages of its projected budget through non-Federal sources of funding during the grant period: (1) at least 25 percent in the first and second years; (2) at least 50 percent in the third year; and (3) at least 65 percent in the fourth and fifth years. Limits to five years the aggregate period for which such grants may be made to any single center.

Sets reporting requirements for centers receiving such grants. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report annually to specified congressional committees on activities under such child care information and referral services provisions.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 and 1986 for such child care information and referral services.

Makes specified provisions for administration of the Head Start program applicable to the administration of such child information and referral services program.

Title III: Community Services Programs - Amends the Community Services Block Grant Act to increase the authorization of appropriations for FY 1985 and 1986 for community services grants to States to ameliorate the causes of poverty in communities.

Revises grant application provisions to require States to assure that: (1) at least 85 percent of the State allotment will be used for grants to community action agencies (or to organizations serving seasonal or migrant farmworkers) for specified purposes; and (2) the remainder will be used to make grants to local governments (or to specified types of nonprofit private community organizations or to migrant and seasonal farm worker organizations) for such specified purposes.

Includes services under the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 among those activities to which a State may transfer funds from a portion of its community services grant allotment.

Authorizes a State, whenever it determines that a local government, or a combination of local governments, is not served by a community action agency, to: (1) use funds earmarked for grants to local governments through an existing community action agency to provide such services; or (2) if that is not feasible, establish a new community action agency to provide such services.

Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary, for purposes of this title) to waive for any State specified limitations relating to eligibility to receive grants, under specified conditions.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) conduct, in several States in each fiscal year, evaluations of the uses made of community services block grants; and (2) annually submit the results of such evaluations to specified congressional committees.

Provides that the Director of the Office of Community Services within the Department of Health and Human Services shall be appointed by the President by and with the advise and consent of the Senate.

Revises provisions relating to investigations conducted by the Secretary and the Comptroller General of the use of community service grant funds. Makes such investigations by the Comptroller General mandatory. Repeals a prohibition against the Secretary either requesting information not readily available to a State or requiring that any information be compiled, collected, or transmitted in any new form not already available.

Requires the Secretary to provide for specified training and other ongoing activities of national or regional significance related to the purposes of the community services grants program, including certain special emphasis programs. (Under current law the Secretary has discretionary authority to provide for such training and other activities.) Adds to the list of such special emphasis programs a specified type of program for senior opportunities and services which is described under specified provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, as in effect on August 12, 1981.

Sets forth provisions for community food and nutrition programs. Directs the Secretary, through grants to public and private, nonprofit agencies, to provide for community-based, local, and statewide programs to: (1) identify food and nutritional needs of low-income populations, especially high-risk infants and children; (2) assist low-income communities to identify potential sponsors of child nutrition programs and initiate new programs in underserved or unserved areas; (3) coordinate existing private and public food assistance resources to better serve low-income populations; and (4) increase public awareness of hunger and develop strategies to minimize dependence on emergency food assistance. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 and 1986 for such programs. Requires that some of such funds be expended for programs for each of the purposes specified.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 and 1986 for Native American programs under title VIII (the "Native American Programs Act of 1964") of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

Title IV: Native American Programs - Native American Programs Act Amendments of 1984 - Amends the Native American Programs Act of 1974 to provide that decisions to grant financial assistance shall not consider whether such aid accrues to the benefit of Indians who are not members of a federally recognized tribe.

Prohibits the rejection of financial assistance solely on the grounds that the request serves Indians or an Indian organization in a nonreservation area.

Requires that programs under such Act be administered within the Department of Health and Human Services. (Currently they may be delegated to other Federal departments and agencies.) Prohibits any transfer of such administration outside of the Department.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to continue the administration of grants through the Administration for Native Americans (the Administration). Requires the Commission of such Administration to delegate all functions within the Administration.

Restricts the delegation and redelegation of functions by the Secretary to personnel within the Department.

Permits interagency funding agreements between the Administration and other Federal agencies.

Specifies the percentage of appropriated funds which shall be used for financial assistance under such Act.

Title V: Effective Date - Sets forth the effective date of this Act and the amendments made by this Act.