Human Services Amendments of 1984

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 1989.

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.

Requires the Secretary to designate as Head Start agencies any local public or private nonprofit agency in a community if such agency: (1) was receiving funds under any Head Start program on August 31, 1981; and (2) meets program and fiscal requirements established by the Secretary. (Under current law, the Secretary is required to give priority in the designation of Head Start agencies to such local agencies.) 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 through 1989 in accordance with the rules issued under such provisions by the Secretary as in effect on September 1, 1983.

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: (1) increase the authorization of appropriations for the Follow Through program for FY 1984; and (2) authorize appropriations for such program for FY 1985 through 1989.

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 to the President and Congress by January 30, 1988.

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 as 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 certain percentages of its projected budget through non-Federal sources of funding during the grant period. 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 through 1989 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: (1) increase the authorization of appropriations for FY 1984 through 1986 for community services grants to States to ameliorate the causes of poverty in communities; and (2) authorize appropriations for FY 1987 through 1989 for such grants.

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 Office of Community Services within the Department of Health and Human Services shall be headed by an Assistant Secretary who shall be appointed by the President by and with the advice 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 specified types of programs for community food and nutrition and for senior opportunities and services which are described under specified provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, as in effect on August 12, 1981.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 through 1989 for Native American programs under title VIII (the "Native American Programs Act of 1974") of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

Title IV: Conforming Amendments; Effective Date - Makes conforming amendments to other Federal laws. Makes references to the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Community Services in the Older American Community Services Employment Act. Makes the effective date of this Act the date of enactment or October 1, 1984, whichever occurs later.