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Durbin: Preschool Age Katrina victims to Gain Access to Illinois Head Start

Date: Sept. 9, 2005
Location: Chicago, IL
Issues: Minors and Children Education


DURBIN: PRESCHOOL AGE KATRINA VICTIMS TO GAIN ACCESS TO ILLINOIS HEAD START

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) visited a Head Start facility today to discuss how to ensure preschool age evacuees currently residing in Illinois have access to Illinois' early childhood education program. Durbin helped to develop a proposal introduced in the Senate yesterday to award grants to local communities and waive the normal documentation requirements for evacuees enrolling in Head Start or Early Head Start programs.

After the Senate Democrats proposed the amendment as part of a series of legislative initiatives designed to aid survivors of Katrina, the Department of Health and Human Services released $15 million in emergency funding for Head Start and waived the documentation requirement.

"The pre-school children arriving in Illinois from areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina deserve to begin their education free of concerns about documentation and funding problems."

"I welcome the evacuees to Illinois," Durbin said. "Some may stay a short while others may stay a lifetime. Regardless of the duration of their stay, we hope to make their time in Illinois the best it can be for the evacuees."

http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=245675&&

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