The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the Senate unanimously approved legislation to reauthorize Head Start, a program serving nearly 1 million children nationwide. The program serves three and four year olds and is run by private and public agencies on the local level.

Democrats originally feared that the Bush Administration would mandate testing for children. Previous House-passed legislation (HR 2210) did not have any new testing mandates.

The compromise reached with Senate Democrats produced language that the testing could only be used to improve program curriculum. Testing could not be linked to any funding decisions.

The bill is scheduled to go before the full Senate in the beginning of next year.