Headstart, Economic Opportunity, and Community Partnership Act of 1974

Headstart, Economic Opportunity, and Community Partnership Act - Authorizes the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity to provide financial assistance through grants or contracts for research, demonstration or pilot projects conducted by public or private agencies which are designed to test or asssist in the development of new approaches or methods that will aid in overcoming special problems or otherwise furthering the purposes of this Act.

Directs the Director to establsih an overall plan to govern the approval of research, demonstration, and pilot projects and the use of all research authority under this Act.

Establishes: (1) a program to be known as "Emergency Energy Conservation Services" designed to enable low-income individuals and families, including the elderly and the near poor, to participate in energy conservation programs designed to lessen the impact of the high cost of energy on such individuals and families and to reduce individual and family energy consumption; and (2) a program to be known as "Summer Youth Recreation" designed to provide recreational opportunities for low-income children during the summer months.

Authorizes to be appropriated to the Office of Economic Opportinity up to $50,000,000 to provide financial assistance to community action agencies for the demonstration of community partnership agreements.

Establishes within the Office of Economic Opportunity or successor authority an Intergovernmental Advisory Council on Community Services to: (1) encourage the formation and review the substance of community partnership agreements and; (2) identify and encourage means of increasing the resources available for antipoverty efforts.

Directs the Secretary to establish within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare a "Comprehensive Health Services" program which shall include: (1) programs to aid in developing and carrying out comprehensive health services projects focused upon the needs of urban and rural areas having high concentrations or proportions of poverty and marked inadequancy of health services for the poor; and (2) programs to provide financial assistance to public or private agencies to projects designed to develop knowledge or enhance skills in the field of health services for the poor. Provides that such projects shall encourage both prospective and practicing health professionals to direct their talents and energies toward providing health services for the poor.

Authorizes the Secretary to carry out the following programs: (1) an Alcoholic Counseling and Recovery" program designed to discover and treat the disease of alcoholism; and (2) a "Drug Rehabilitation" program designed to discover the causes of drug abuse and addiction, to treat narcotic and drug addiction and the dependence associated with drug abuse.

Provides that Title V of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 is redesignated the "Headstart - Follow Through Act".

Extends the authority for appropriation of funds for Project Headstart for fiscal years 1975, 1976, and 1977.

Directs the Secretary to provide financial assistance to an agency eligible for designation as a Headstart agency which: (1) will provide such comprehensive health, nutritional, educational, social, and other services as will aid the children to attain their full potential; and (2) will provide for direct participation of the parents of such children in the development, conduct, and overall program direction at the local level.

Enumerates the criteria to be applied by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in designating Headstart agencies.

Directs the Secretary to prescribe by regulation eligibility for the participation of persons in Headstart programs.

Requires the Secretary to prescribe procedures for appeal, notice, and hearings for an agency whose application to a Headstart agency has been substantially rejected.

Authorizes the Secretary to provide, directly or through grants or other arrangments: (1) technical assistance to communities in developing, conducting, and administering Headstart programs; and (2) training for specialized or other personnel needed in connection with Headstart programs.

Authorizes the Secretary to provide financial assistance through grants or contracts for research, demonstration, or pilot projects conducted by public or private agencies which are designed to test or assist in the development of new approaches or methods that will aid in overcoming special problems or otherwise in furthering the purpose of the Headstart programs.

Authorizes the Secretary to provide financial assistance in the form of grants to local educational agencies, combinations of such agencies, and any other public or appropriate nonprofit private agencies, organizations, and institutions for the purpose of carrying out Follow-Through programs focused primarily on children from low-income in kindergarten and primary grades, including such children enrolled in private, nonprofit elementary schools who are previously enrolled in Headstart or other similar programs.

States that such projects shall provide for the direct participation of the parents of such children in the development, conduct, and overall direction of the program at the local level.

Authorizes to be appropriated for carrying out Follow-Through programs $60,000,000 for fiscal years 1975, 1976, and 1977. States that no such project shall be approved for assistance unless the Secretary is satisfied that the services to be provided will be in addition to, and not in substitution for, services previously provided without Federal assistance.

States that, upon the date of enactment of this Act, there is established within the executive branch an agency known as the "Community Services Administration" which shall be headed by a Director and which shall be, in all respects, and for all purposes, the successor authority to the Office of Economic Opportunity. Provides that the Administration will remain in existence unless and until a reorganization plan submitted by the President pursuant to a prescribed administrative structure takes effect.

Provides that agencies administering programs under this Act shall revise the criteria for eligibility for such programs at regular intervals.

Authorizes to be appropriated for fiscal years 1975, 1976, and 1977 such sums as are necessary to develop the following special programs by which the residents of urban and rural low-income areas may, through self-help and mobilization of the community at large, with appropriate Federal assistance, improve the quality of their economic and social participation in community life in such a way as to contribute to the elimination of poverty and the establishment of permanent economic and social benefits: (1)urban and rural impact programs; (2) special rural programs; (3) development loans to community economic development programs; (4) supportive programs and activities as are necessary to implement the above programs; (5) low and moderate income housing programs; and (6) Department of Agriculture and Farmers Home Administration programs.

Authorizes the Secretary to provide financial assistance to public and nonprofit private agencies, including but not limited to, governing bodies of Indian tribes on Federal and State reservations, Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and such public and nonprofit private agencies serving Hawaiian Natives, and Indian organizations in urban or rural nonreservation areas, for projects pertaining to the goal of economic and social self-sufficiency for American Indians, Hawaiian Natives, and Alaskan Natives.

States that the Director shall, directly or through grants or contracts, measure and evaluate the impact of all programs authorized by this Act and of poverty-related programs authorized by other Acts, in order to determine their effectiveness in achieving stated goals and their impact on related programs.