Head Start Spending Per Slot Varies Widely Across Grants, Driven in Part by Cost of Living and Local Program Design Factors

This brief presents information on Head Start spending per slot across the country.  Key findings include:

• The median amount grantees spend per slot is $20,294 in Early Head Start and $14,532 in Head Start Preschool. 
• Spending per slot varies widely across both programs, as well as both across and within states; however, Early Head Start grants have larger variation in spending per slot compared to Head Start Preschool grants. There is not a clear pattern that explains across state or within-state variation in spending per slot.
• Cost of living explains some – but not all – of the variation in spending per slot
  • Across both Early Head Start and Head Start Preschool, cost of living is positively associated with spending per slot. A 10 percent increase in relative regional prices is associated with $1,490 additional spending per slot in Early Head Start (or about 7 percent of national median spending per slot), and $2,170 in additional spending per slot in Head Start Preschool (or about 15 percent of national median spending per slot).
• Head Start program operation and design factors also explain some of the observed variation in spending per slot, though different factors are relevant to Early Head Start as compared to Head Start Preschool.
  • In Early Head Start, the largest and most persistent differences in spending per slot are associated with service delivery setting. Grants that provide only home-based services spend about 33 percent less per slot compared to grants that provide only center-based services.
  • In Head Start Preschool, service delivery setting, grantee type, and program size are major drivers of spending variation.
    • Grants that provide only center-based services spend less per slot than grants that provide services in mixed or other service delivery settings (e.g., home-based services only, both center- and home-based services)
    • Non-profit, non-community action agency grantee organizations spend $1,163 more per slot than community action agencies. School systems, in contrast, spend about $2,492 less per slot than community action agencies.
    • Larger grants, or grants with more slots, spend less per slot compared to smaller grants. For example, if Grant A is funded to serve 50 more slots than Grant B, Grant A will spend $85 less per slot than Grant B (or $4,250 less for all 50 slots, total).

• If Head Start grants that spend above the median per slot amount were to adjust their spending to a state median benchmark, Early Head Start could serve 18,430 more slots, and Head Start Preschool could serve 41,621 more slots.

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