626472 - Iowa Early Head Start State Grant FY26
Funding Opportunity Details

Early Childhood At-Risk

Final Application Deadline: Jul 31, 2025 4:30 PM

Description

• Description

  Iowa Early Head Start State Grant

  Purpose

  Renewal of existing Iowa Early Head Start (EHS) State funding opportunity.

  Grant Purpose:

  The purpose of the Iowa EHS State Grant is to increase the capacity of providers of Infant/Toddler services to successfully maintain adherence to requirements of the Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS) through collaborative partnerships within Early Head Start programs. The focus of this grant serves to increase collaboration through birth-five partnerships as an infrastructure underpinning to leverage federal funding opportunities specific to EHS grants.

  Impact: 

  • Increase and influence success of partnership and collaboration between Child Care and Head Start; 
  • Expand the number of children, families, staff, administration and systems Iowa EHS State allocation funds influence; 
  • Increase efforts in focus areas of coaching and mentoring to increase staff education, instructional practices, family support, business practices and infrastructure through systems work and collaboration with EHS. 

  Eligibility

  The renewal is for existing Iowa EHS State Grant recipients. 

  Program Period: 

  Grants will be awarded for one year with a renewal option for up to five years provided grantees meet program requirements. All funding is contingent on annual legislative appropriations and adherence to reporting requirements. The funding period for Year Two - FY26 is July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. Renewal years include:

  • Year Three - FY27: July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027
  • Year Four - FY28: July 1, 2027 - June 30, 2028
  • Year Five - FY29: July 1, 2028 - June 30, 2029

  Dates: 

  Renewal Application Deadline

  July 31, 2025 4:30pm

  Outcomes:

  • Foster community grassroots partnerships to leverage services and resources for private/public partnership; 
  • Increase number of children and families impacted by quality early childhood services through innovative collaboration; 
  • Extend capacity to provide coaching and mentoring to child care staff and administration;
  • Increase efforts to further staff education and professionalize partnerships within early childhood; 
  • Expand professional development and/or training efforts to create systemic procedures to impact instructional practices including curriculum, assessment and Part C services; 
  • Increase collaboration efforts between Head Start, Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) and local support entities working with Early Childhood;  
  • Expand capacity to provide family support strategies through partnership with EHS; 
  • Increase focus of systems work to inform sustainability and stability of early childhood programming through partnerships and collaboration; 
  • Increase Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS-IQ4K) ratings through collaboration focused on systems work to create sustainability in practices achieving long lasting and consistently higher IQ4K ratings;
  • Increase child care programs ability to achieve quality at or above HSPPS and foster expanded collaborations in the process (i.e. Department of Health and Human Services- child care, nurse consultants, public health, etc.)
  • Increase partnerships between Head Start and child care; 
  • Increase awareness of partnerships and collaboration between Head Start and child care.

  Expectations

  The following table indicates the expectations of the grantee and the Head Start State Collaboration Office (HSSCO) in the implementation of the Iowa EHS State Grant: 

  	Grantee Commitment	HSSCO Commitment
  Hiring	Fiscal agent responsible for the hiring and evaluation of the dedicated Full-time Equivalency (FTE) program staff.	Lend feedback based on the recipient's request for guidance.
  Training	Train on agency procedures and processes; Explore and support opportunities for personnel to attend training to enhance the grant and work; Fiscal agent for expenses incurred to receive training.	Support exploration of training opportunities to enhance the grant and work; Provide on-going coaching; Provide technical support to: Set up grant model, communication systems and collaboration support/s necessary to connect with child care, CCR&R or like entities, grassroots efforts, etc.; Support on-going cyclical nature of needs responsive to the model, communication systems and collaborative support/s; Explore and support national models and partnerships to enhance the model, communication and collaborative support/s.
  Staff Support	Evaluation; Support as part of the team to foster possibilities of partnership and collaboration within the agency to enhance the grant and work; Provide agency tools to gain necessary materials needed to be successful in the position (e.g. technology, ordering capacity, access to professional library); Ability to attend meetings and interact with partnerships involved in the grant and work to foster relationships, inform stakeholders of efforts and increase awareness; Access to HSSCO to meet, at minimum quarterly, and support the position and agency as needed to meet outcomes of the grant model; Availability to fulfill roles with the HSSCO to present needs, challenges, successes and data representations with stakeholders, State partners, in Federal forums and participate in possible presentations on the model.	Coaching; Build and support staff’s ability to provide training and implement adult learning strategies; Support staff in meeting the requirements and needs of this grant to its fruition; Support staff in ‘molding’ this grant from theory to application; Support fostering of external connections to support the grant and the work.
  Data	Access to community assessment data and relevant data [e.g. Program Information Report (PIR)]; Data system input in modules to track data specific to this grant (e.g. Child Plus); Completion of reporting to State and HSSCO as necessary and applicable.	Support determination of baseline data; Support for ongoing data collection and analysis including synthesis into usable data to inform the efforts/impacts of the grant and the work; Support to gain wider community assessments of where a community’s collaborations are located in (e.g. area wages, area fees); Dissemination of data to stakeholders.
  Community	Access to community partnerships to meet and foster areas to support efforts and sustainability of this grant (e.g. Chamber of Commerce, Early Childhood Iowa, Community College, T.E.A.C.H. Iowa, etc.).	Support community connections, partnerships, etc.; Foster possibilities of grassroots efforts to support the outcomes of the grant and the work; State connections to applicable areas of the grant and the work; National connections to applicable areas of the work.

  Grant Assurances

  Personnel Assurances:

  Recipient utilizes Iowa EHS State Grant monies to fund dedicated Program Staff who:

  • Use intimate knowledge of Early Head Start (EHS) and child care to build relationships, open communication and bridge connections between the Iowa EHS State Grantee and child care programs;
  • Work collaboratively with Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) or like training entities to expand supports/capacity for child care infant/toddler programs;
  • Work with child care staff and administration to learn and achieve quality at or above the HSPPS;
    • Onboarding systems for staff and families (i.e. training system, intake processes, screening/curriculum/assessment, health and safety, transitions, QRIS (IQ4K));
    • Fidelity of implementation of standards;
    • Systems supports including Part C;
    • Teaming;
    • Coaching;
    • Continued education.
  • Work with administration of child care programs to:
    • Utilize the Program Administration Scale (PAS) for action planning around business practices (i.e. wait lists, staff patterning, systems analysis);
    • Use and analyze business practices and systems (i.e. Profit and Loss, grants, local services, internal systems such as ProCare/Brightwheel/Playground, Kindertrack and staff/child patterning);
    • Increase IQ4K ratings through sustainable systems work to achieve higher reimbursement rates supporting sustainability in business practices;
    • Increase education opportunities to include Child Development Associate (CDA) certification.
  • Data collection including: 
    • Baseline data, growth and opportunity areas to display impacts of collaborations;
    • Informing community assessment information (i.e. workforce, staff education, family engagement, local partnership, stakeholder connections, etc.);
    • On-going analysis to inform the work;
    • Longitudinal data to inform work and policies;
    • Dissemination of data to appropriate stakeholders.
  • Engage community stakeholders to increase visibility of collaboration and partnership efforts:
    • Work with local grassroots efforts and foster community connections to increase supports and resources for child care infant/toddler programs (i.e. Development Corporations, Early Childhood Iowa, Chamber of Commerce, etc.);
  • Attend applicable meetings in the community, at the state and nationally as advised to foster attention needed to leverage future or existing resources to sustain this grant;
  • Engage with and work alongside the Iowa Head Start State Collaboration Office (HSSCO) meeting, at minimum, quarterly;
  • Build out staffing structure to include a dedicated FTE Program Staff, Instructional Coach for classrooms and Family Engagement personnel over time. One dedicated FTE will be required at all times but other positions can be part-time.

  Fiscal and Deliverables Assurances

  • Continuation of grant awards within the five-year grant project are contingent upon annual appropriations by the Iowa Legislature. This grant is also dependent on reported performance, results described in quarterly meetings with the HSSCO, in reports (semi-annual and year-end) submitted to the HSSCO.

  • Dedicated FTE Program Staff will meet regularly with the HSSCO reporting progress, gain training and support/s to implement the Iowa EHS State Grant including reporting formal data findings regularly.
  • Year-end reports from the project are due to the HSSCO within 30 days from the end of the grant year or by a later date determined by the HSSCO. Failure to submit reports by the due date shall result in suspension of financial payments until the time that the report is received. No new awards shall be made where there are delinquent reports.

  Payment Provision Assurances

  • Quarterly payments to be made on or about July 15 (contingent upon approval of the current year’s application/renewal application), October 1 (contingent upon approval of previous year’s final report), January 2, and April 1. All payments are contingent on the state annual appropriation. 
  • Any funds not expended by June 30^th of the current fiscal year may be carried forward and used the following renewal year for the intended purpose. Grant funds unencumbered or unobligated at the conclusion of the program period will revert to the Iowa Department of Education. The program period concludes at the end of the five-year grant cycle, if an annual renewal grant within the five-year grant cycle is not awarded, or at any time the grant is discontinued during the five-year grant cycle. A warrant for the reversion amount must accompany the year-end report to the Department of Education.

  Selection- Renewal grant of existing funding opportunity

   Grant Application Components 

  This grant submitted electronically within the IowaGrants Online Application System.

  1. Program Information

  1. Grant Name: Iowa Early Head Start Grant
  2. Grantee Name;
  3. Grantee Business Contact Person: 
  4. Grantee Business Contact Address;
  5. Grantee Business Contact Email; 
  6. Program Coordinator Name; 
  7. Program Coordinator Phone Number;
  8. Program Coordinator Email. 

  2. PLAN- Proposed Changes (if any) Proposed changes from the original grant plan. This may including partnerships, timeline of project, data tool changes, etc. 

   

   

  3. BUDGET

  This section should provide a clear outline of the grantee’s proposed budget and align with the original intent of the plan. If changes are requested this should be documented in step #2 Plan- Proposed Updates with justification. As indicated prior, this grant will be renewable at a static amount, therefore, the submitted budget should reflect the full costs as phasing in staff positions and evolution with partnerships occur. Please reference the plan timeline to mirror the budget at full implementation during this renewal year.

  Questions and Additional Guidance 

  All questions should be submitted in writing via email to Monica Garner at Monica.Garner@iowa.gov.​

Income Eligibility Guidelines