(a) Family partnership process. A program must implement a family partnership process that includes a family partnership agreement and the activities described in this section to support family well-being, including family safety, health, and economic stability, to support child learning and development, to provide, if applicable, services and supports for children with disabilities, and to foster parental confidence and skills that promote the early learning and development of their children. The process must be initiated as early in the program year as possible and continue for as long as the family participates in the program, based on parent interest and need.

(b) Identification of family strengths and needs. A program must implement intake and family assessment procedures to identify family strengths and needs related to the family engagement outcomes as described in the Head Start Parent Family and Community Engagement Framework, including family well-being, parent-child relationships, families as lifelong educators, families as learners, family engagement in transitions, family connections to peers and the local community, and families as advocates and leaders.

(c) Individualized family partnership services. A program must offer individualized family partnership services that:

(1) Collaborate with families to identify interests, needs, and aspirations related to the family engagement outcomes described in paragraph (b) of this section;

(2) Help families achieve identified individualized family engagement outcomes; and

(3) Establish and implement a family partnership agreement process that is jointly developed and shared with parents in which staff and families review individual progress, revise goals, evaluate and track whether identified needs and goals are met, and adjust strategies on an ongoing basis, as necessary.

(d) Approaches to family partnership services. A program must:

(1) Ensure the family assignment process takes into account the varied interests, urgency, and intensity of identified family needs and goals.

(2) Ensure the planned number of families assigned to work with staff that conduct the family partnership process and work on family, health and community engagement services is no greater than 40:1. A program must maintain this ratio, except:

(i) When the responsible HHS official grants a waiver if the program can demonstrate staff competencies at § 1302.92(b)(5); program outcomes at paragraph (b) of this section; and reasonable staff workload as described in paragraph (d)(3) of this section.

(ii) During temporary periods of staff absence or attrition; changes in daily operations related to start-up or transitional activities; or extenuating circumstances related to emergency response and recovery.

(3) Ensure meaningful employee engagement practices address family services workload experiences, in accordance with § 1302.101(a)(2).

(e) Existing plans and community resources. In implementing this section, a program must take into consideration any existing plans for the family made with other community agencies and availability of other community resources to address family needs, strengths, and goals, in order to avoid duplication of effort.