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Miami Herald
04-05-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
As federal dollars for Head Start slow, rural parents left without other options
In the rural Methow Valley in northeast Washington state, parents have few options for child care. There are only two licensed programs in the community - one of which is a Head Start center. About 40 miles northeast in the town of Okanogan, 30 percent of the town's limited child care spots are provided by the local Head Start center. Nationwide, Head Start has long played an outsized role in the rural child care landscape, existing in 86 percent of rural counties. If the federal program is eliminated, as President Donald Trump has reportedly proposed in his forthcoming budget, there will be massive consequences in many of the rural communities that voted for the Republican ticket. About 46 percent of all funded Head Start slots are in rural congressional districts, compared to 22 percent in urban districts. In some states, 1 in 3 rural child care centers are operated by Head Start. In this swath of the Evergreen State, nestled just south of the Canadian border and east of the Cascade Mountains, Head Start fills a critical child care void: Even with the federal program, there is only enough licensed care for about 1 in 3 children under the age of 5. The program also provides vital services that many in the rural region might lack otherwise. Enrolled families can receive developmental screenings, home visiting programs, mental health services, parent support programs and dental care, all part of the federally funded program's wraparound service model. "Those federal grant funds make a huge difference in places where other programs cannot afford to operate," said Katie Hamm, former deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development at the Administration for Children and Families. "If Head Start closes, it's not like [families] have another option." Several of the congressional districts that stand to lose the most Head Start spots if the program is eliminated are rural districts that helped put Trump in office, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Since its launch in 1965, Head Start has served more than 40 million low-income children through a free preschool program and a counterpart for infants and toddlers, known as Early Head Start. While Head Start quality varies, research has found positive benefits from the program. Children who have attended Head Start are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college and are less likely to experience poor health. Head Start has been found to have a positive impact on self-control and self-esteem and on parenting practices. The program's two-generation approach of helping children and their parents is invaluable in rural communities, said Jodi DeCesari, executive director of Washington's Okanogan County Child Development Association, which runs nine Head Start centers for more than 200 children. "We're helping families get employment, we're helping families get their GED. … We're helping families lift themselves out of poverty and become more self-sufficient," said DeCesari. "In the long term, that benefits our community." Although Head Start has received bipartisan support over the years, the program has been slowly starved of funding under the second Trump administration. Compared to this time last year, the federal government has sent $1 billion less in Head Start funding to states, according to an analysis by the Senate Committee on Appropriations. This comes after reports of funding freezes and mass terminations at the regional and federal levels. In Georgia, Mindy Binderman, executive director of the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, said Head Start programs are now experiencing delays because of an executive order requiring that all requests for federal funds include a detailed justification statement. This practice can be especially destructive for programs in rural areas, experts say, where Head Starts may not have other funding sources from local philanthropies or government sources to tide them over. One of the first programs to temporarily close earlier this month due to a delay in funding was a rural Head Start network outside of Yakima, Washington. In Montana, a largely rural state, the uncertainty over Head Start's future is causing fear as the program's teachers worry their jobs could soon disappear, said Ashley Pena-Larsen, Head Start program director at Montana's Rocky Mountain Development Council Inc. In rural areas, it's already a struggle to find qualified teachers, and Head Start programs often have to compete with higher-paying positions in local school districts. Pena-Larsen fears the lack of certainty will compel teachers to search for jobs elsewhere. "When you already have a workforce that's stretched thin, you don't want to come into an environment where you're unsure about your career. Are you wanting to start a career in a field that's potentially dying?" she said. Back in Okanogan, with summer heat looming, DeCesari is unsure what will happen when she submits a request to shift some funds to buy a new air conditioning unit at one of her centers. Usually that request would eventually end up at the regional office in Seattle, but that was one of the offices that was abruptly shuttered. "It's been really chaotic," DeCesari said. "I feel like everything is in question right now." One thing DeCesari is certain about is that if Head Start goes away, there will be an immense ripple effect throughout the local economy. In addition to providing child care and wraparound support, DeCesari's organization employs more than 100 people and invests millions in the local community through buying food at local grocery stores and hiring companies that help run the organization's buildings and buses. But she worries most about the broader impact on Okanogan families if Head Start disappears. "Families benefit from our services," she said. "Without Head Start, I think we're really going to see a generational loss." Contact staff writer Jackie Mader at 212-678-3562 or mader@ This story about Head Start was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. The post As federal dollars for Head Start slow, rural parents left without other options appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Boston Globe
02-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Email mistake reveals secret plans to end research on Head Start and other child safety net programs
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The grant cancellations would add to deep cuts already enacted at HHS' Administration for Children and Families, which plans to close five regional offices and abruptly fired hundreds of workers one month ago. Its staffing has dropped from approximately 2,400 in January to 1,500, former employees say, and the administration has said it will fold ACF into other parts of HHS. Advertisement Other HHS divisions, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, have already cut billions of dollars in grants, including those related to public health, gender, race and other subjects opposed by President Donald Trump's administration. The document released Wednesday marked the first news of plans for the possible mass terminations of ACF grants, although a department spokesperson later said it was only an outdated draft. Advertisement The proposed terminations would further undercut Head Start, the 60-year-old program overseen by ACF that supports preschool and services for hundreds of thousands of low-income children. Head Start has faced mass layoffs and a plan to eliminate its funding altogether in recent months. The grants facing termination included studies intended to answer key questions and improve its operations, such as how to retain more educators at local Head Start programs. The spreadsheet also listed for termination grants worth millions of dollars for first-of-their-kind centers dedicated to better serving low-income Black and Hispanic children and families, located, respectively, at Morehouse College in Atlanta and at a nonprofit in Maryland. Dozens of grants related to child care policy, child development, foster care, preventing child abuse, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and more were also listed as set for cancellation, reflecting ACF's widespread portfolio. Those studies help policymakers understand what works, a former administration official said. 'Ending these projects without explanation not only wastes taxpayer dollars, it also threatens the evidence base behind key safety net programs,' said Katie Hamm, who was ACF's deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development until January. 'It's alarming that grantees and contractors had to find out this way, through an accidental email, rather than a transparent process.' The information was mistakenly included in an email sent Wednesday to grant recipients at universities and nonprofits by an HHS employee, who asked them to review and update their contact information. HHS recalled the message only after the spreadsheet, which had a column on whether funding would 'terminate' or 'continue' for each grant, had been downloaded by recipients. A department spokesperson said the document contained 'outdated and predecisional information' but did not rule out that research inside the ACF could be cut. Advertisement 'ACF is committed to ensuring that government funds are used in alignment with Administration priorities and are in the best interest of the American people,' spokesperson Andrew Nixon said. Goldstein, the former research office director, said the situation 'does appear to reflect a level of haste and chaos' at the agency. Only 21 out of 177 listed grants were marked with a note to 'continue' funding in the document. A small number had already ended, and some were marked for termination 'at the end of budget period.' The document didn't list how much funding in all would be cut, but the office was responsible for $154 million in grants and contracts in fiscal year 2024. More than 50 universities were listed as having grants terminated. Several other state agencies and nonprofits would also be affected. A follow-up email told recipients to disregard the spreadsheet, but again asked for updated contact information. One researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation said they were expecting to receive formal notification soon that their grants would be ending. Several other grant recipients declined to comment.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Head Start is turning 60. The federal child care program may not make it to 61.
Bright morning sun is streaming through the windows of Sandra Dill's New Haven, Connecticut, home as she reads a picture book about penguins to a room full of busy toddlers. While listening, the kids blow kisses, plop in a visitor's lap, then get up to slide down a small slide. Dill has been running a family child care business from her home for 15 years, and every one of her 13 grandchildren has spent time here—currently it's 20-month-old Nathaniel, who has a puff of curly hair and a gooey grin. "My older ones started to call it 'grandma school,'" she said. Another one of her granddaughters, now a teenager, is returning this summer to help out. Four of Dill's eight available slots are funded through Head Start. This is the federal-to-local program that funds child care and other support for the poorest families in America. (Regular Head Start serves children 3 to 5 years old; Early Head Start is for those under 3.) The program—which began right here in New Haven—is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, The Hechinger Report says. It's also never been so at risk: First a federal funding freeze hit providers, then a chunk of Head Start federal support staff were fired by the Department of Government Efficiency. On March 27, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was cutting a further 10,000 jobs, and reorganizing the Administration for Children and Families, which administers Head Start. As of April 1, Head Start employees in five of the program's 10 regions—Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle—had reportedly been laid off, according to a LinkedIn post that day from Katie Hamm, a former official with the federal Administration for Children and Families. Hamm said there does not appear to be a transition plan laying out how Head Start programs in those regions will receive funding and support. Project 2025, the conservative policy handbook organized by the Heritage Foundation, which the Trump administration has been following closely, calls for eliminating Head Start altogether. "I think it's terrible," Dill said. "I just can't imagine. It's already not enough, and if this happens, it's going to affect a lot of families that are already struggling." Ed Zigler, the "father of Head Start," was the son of immigrants from Poland. His father was a peddler and his mother plucked chickens to make a little money, according to Walter Gilliam, executive director of the University of Nebraska's Buffett Early Childhood Institute, who counted Zigler as his closest mentor. When Zigler was a child, his family made its way to a settlement house in Kansas City, Missouri; these community-based charities offered a two-generation approach, caring for and educating children while also teaching English and job skills to parents and connecting families with medical care and housing help. "That made a huge impact on his and his family's life," Gilliam said. As a young psychology professor at Yale, Zigler was hired as an advisor to President Lyndon Johnson to help design family programs for the federal War on Poverty. In creating Head Start, he turned to the same two-generation model he grew up with. To date, Head Start has served nearly 40 million children. In fiscal year 2023, the Head Start program was funded to serve 778,420 children. The program has always been underfunded: In 2020 Head Start served barely 1 in 10 eligible infants and toddlers and only half of eligible preschoolers. It's limited to families making under the federal poverty level, which is just $31,200 for a family of four. Still, for many of the families who do manage to make it through the doors, the program is life-changing. "Head Start is in every community in America," said Cara Sklar, director of early and elementary education policy at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank New America. "It's the original two-generation program, with wraparound support for kids. It's really held up as a model of quality in early learning." The "wraparound support" for Dill's Early Head Start families is funded by the United Way of Greater New Haven, and comes via a network for family child care educators called All Our Kin. The network helps mothers enroll in community college and apply for housing subsidies. Dill has had mothers who lived in their cars and one who was living with her mother "six to a room," she said. She also does regular home visits with families to talk about children's development and support parents in goals like potty training. Thanks to Early Head Start, a nurse, a mental health consultant and a nutritionist all help Dill keep the kids healthy and safe. And the program also provides extra funds she can use to get back up and running if, for example, the furnace needs fixing. But Head Start is now facing funding challenges that go far beyond a broken furnace. "The past month has been harrowing for child care providers," said Carolina Reyes, director of Arco Iris Bilingual Children's Center, a preschool in Laurel, Maryland, that is a Head Start partner, and also a member of the nationwide advocacy group MomsRising. The first blow to Head Start in this administration was President Donald Trump's Jan. 27 executive order calling for a federal funding freeze. Since Head Start is a direct federal-to-local grant program, even temporary interruptions in funding can cause programs to close their doors. " Programs like mine operate on razor-thin margins," said Reyes. "I don't have any reserves to pull from if funding is delayed or slashed." While funding for most programs has resumed, Joel Ryan, the executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start, said in a recent press conference that as late as the week of Feb. 17, 1 in 4 of his programs still had trouble accessing the Head Start payment website. That same week of Feb. 17, almost 70 Head Start staffers were pink-slipped in the federal government's sweep of "probationary" employees—about one-fifth of the program's workforce. One laid-off employee, who didn't want to give his name because he is still fighting his dismissal and fears reprisal, said he spent five years as a contractor before switching to full time this past summer, which accounted for his probationary status. He wore many hats at Head Start, doing data analytics, working with grant recipients and serving as a liaison for state partners. "They say we're bloated; we could have used two more full-time people," he said. The cuts, he feared, will lead to further delays in programs getting the payments they rely on, not to mention the oversight that keeps kids safe. "I come from the private sector. I will find another job," he said. "The issue isn't us, it's the children and the families. We've got all these people in poverty who are getting screwed over by what's happening." A third blow came on Feb. 25, when the House passed a budget resolution calling for $880 billion in cuts to discretionary spending programs over the next decade, with Medicaid the prime target, along with the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Head Start families overwhelmingly rely on these safety net programs. The White House's gutting of the Department of Education also threatens many services for preschoolers, especially those in special education. (This process, which maps out the next fiscal year, is separate from the recent vote to fund the government until Sept. 30.) "This is going from the precipice of disaster to decimating the system," Sklar said. "All the parts that help families, from Head Start to child care to food to health care, are all being destabilized at once." Gilliam said that threats to eliminate Head Start are nothing new. After designing the program during the Johnson administration, Zigler was appointed to run it under the presidency of Richard Nixon. "Some folks told him that his job was to destroy, essentially, the program that he had created," Gilliam said. Head Start advocates said the program has been able to fight off political challenges in the past because it is widely distributed geographically and has bipartisan support. "I agree that Project 2025 is a real threat to Head Start, as well as to other programs that we all care about," said Ryan, with the Washington State Head Start association. "But I will say this: We have great research. We have great data. We have a great track record. We have a lot of bipartisan support in Congress. And we have parent power." By coincidence, the week the House passed its budget resolution, a group of 150 Head Start parents were on Capitol Hill lobbying as part of a group called Start Early, and they met with many Republican senators. Tommy Sheridan, the deputy director of the National Head Start Association, struck an almost defiantly optimistic tone after the visit to lawmakers: "We still believe and have seen indicators that this administration is supportive of Head Start. And Congress as well." Another potential bright spot is the growth of child care support and funding on the state level. Elizabeth Groginsky is New Mexico's first cabinet secretary for the state's new Early Childhood Education and Care Department, and she said the pandemic woke a lot of people up to the importance of early care and education. "People began to understand the impact that child care has on children's development, families' ability to work, the overall economy," Groginsky said. Since 2020, New Mexico has gone through a major expansion in home visits, child care and preschool. Vermont has made similar moves, and New York and Connecticut are heading in that direction as well. Even the deep-red state of Kentucky has expanded access. What all of these state-level programs have in common is that they are much more widely available to middle-class families, rather than tightly targeted to families in poverty, as Head Start still is. Historically, with programs like Medicare and Social Security, universal access has meant durable support. Now those states are contemplating stepping in further if the federal government drops the ball. "Because the state has made such an impressive commitment to child care, we're potentially in a better spot than others," said Janet McLaughlin, deputy commissioner for Vermont's Department of Children and Families. And Groginsky, in New Mexico, said firmly, "The governor and the legislature—I don't think we'll let New Mexicans go without. They'll find a way." This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Head Start sues Trump administration over DEI confusion, grant freezes to child care program
Apr. 28—The Washington office representing federal Head Start child care for families in poverty is suing Trump administration officials responsible for the program in the wake of sporadic grant freezes and threats to end it entirely. The 60-year-old federal program subsidizes child care for families below the poverty line, serving 800,000 infants to 4-year-olds around the nation, including 15,000 in child care centers in Washington. Washington's office representing Head Start is suing alongside the Illinois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin offices, along with lobbying groups from Oregon and Oakland. They're suing the Trump administration, namely Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Andrew Gradison, Tara Hooban and their respective agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services, the Administration for Children and Families , and the Office of Head Start. Head Start groups are represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, imploring judicial interference to stop what they allege is illegal overreach of the Trump administration to dismantle Head Start, a congressionally established program. The 90-page complaint cites President Donald Trump's budget proposal to eliminate Head Start completely by October, on top of his administration's actions to dismantle the program thus far. Those include freezing grant funds during Trump's first week in office and shuttering its regional office in Seattle, which laid off six employees at the start of April. Across the nation, the Trump administration closed offices in 22 other states, nearly half of the program's administrative offices. The confusion and uncertainty brewed by grant freezes and fewer support staff to run these programs resulted in the weeklong closure of a day care facility in Sunnyside. The Central Washington preschool serves 400 kids and employs 70 staff. "Our goal is to make sure there's no more Sunnysides across the country," said Joel Ryan, executive director of Head Start in Washington. The lawsuit alleges diversity, equity and inclusion programing is the main issue; budget materials from the Trump Administration describe Head Start as a program that "uses a 'radical' curriculum and gives preference to illegal immigrants" and "criticizes it for diversity, equity and inclusion programming and the use of resources that encourage toddlers to welcome children and families with different sexual orientations," the lawsuit reads, quoting from Trump administration budget materials. Federal agencies never provided any guidance on what constitutes DEI, Ryan said, and how they can remove these elements from their services while also targeting the "diverse needs of the population served," as is mandated in the Head Start Act. "The programs have to serve 10% kids with disabilities, but then you're not allowed to do inclusion. What does that mean? You're not allowed to meet their needs? You're not allowed to train teachers to meet their needs? You have to segregate them?" said Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, an attorney with the ACLU who is representing the plaintiffs in the suit. A drafted version of the complaint defends Head Start programs as beneficial to bridging economic and racial disparities in child care access. Created in 1965 by Congress as a civil rights-era effort, Head Start seeks to address poverty-related issues at the root: providing child care to working families and giving poor kids access to preschool education. "Head Start's educational programming has generated documented improvements in the health, educational outcomes, and financial prospects of participating children and families," the complaint reads. "For parents and caregivers — especially mothers, who carry a disproportionate share of child care responsibilities, access to Head Start enables them to provide for their families. Without Head Start, many women, and especially women of color, would not be able to work or go to school." More than 75% of Head Start's children are from families of color, 15% have a disability and 30% live in rural areas the complaint describes as "child care deserts." "We live in a much more diverse country, and if the Head Start program is going to provide an opportunity for all kids, the services are going to be slightly different for each family," Ryan said. "It's individualized, and we're saying that's what you should do in order to make sure our kids get what they need." Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
NBC News
21-04-2025
- Business
- NBC News
In Kansas City, DOGE cuts are hitting hard
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In her 28 years working for the federal government, Shea Giagnorio provided day care for the children of U.S. soldiers, training for employees and oversight for safety net programs. Public service took her from Germany to Alaska to Kansas City, Missouri, where she moved last year for a long-sought promotion. But when she reported to a downtown federal building for work one day last month, her access card did not work. After a co-worker let her into the building, she checked her email: Her entire office had been let go in the latest mass firing ordered by President Donald Trump's administration. The 46-year-old single mom has canceled her apartment lease, is selling her new furniture and may have to pull her daughter out of college. She wonders what will happen to the at-risk populations her team helped serve at the Administration for Children and Families, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 'Not only me, but all these peoples' lives are turned upside down,' Giagnorio said. The impact of the cuts by Trump appointees and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency can be found everywhere in the Kansas City metropolitan area, which has long been a major hub for federal agencies about 1,000 miles away from Washington, D.C. Money once promised to the region for public health, environmental, diversity, food aid and an array of other programs has been axed, and thousands of local jobs are in jeopardy. With nearly 30,000 workers, the federal government is the largest employer in the region. One longtime Kansas City economic researcher said he believes the region could lose 6,000 good-paying federal jobs, which in turn would wipe out thousands of others in service industries. An IRS worker said thousands of her co-workers fear they will lose their jobs, even as they put in overtime processing tax refunds in a building so crowded that they struggle to find desks. Under pressure, hundreds more agreed this past week to retire early or take a buyout. 'It's a kick in the stomach to people that are doing everything they can to meet what's required of them,' said Shannon Ellis, a longtime IRS customer service representative and president of the union representing local workers. By Thursday, at least 238 Kansas City workers had taken the buyout offers and were expected to leave the agency in coming weeks. Ellis noted many of those same workers had been told they were essential and required to work overtime during tax season, some seven days per week. A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant revocation disrupted a historically Black neighborhood's plan to expand its program growing fresh produce in a food desert. A nearby pantry reduced its monthly grocery allotment for those in need after federal cuts left food banks shorthanded. Urban farmer Rosie Warren grew 2,500 pounds of fruits and vegetables last year in community gardens to help feed the Ivanhoe neighborhood, where many Black families were concentrated under housing segregation policies of much of the 20th century. Warren harvested greens, potatoes and watermelons as part of an effort to address food insecurity and health concerns in a neighborhood challenged by blight, crime and poverty. She was ecstatic last fall when the USDA awarded the neighborhood council a three-year, $130,000 grant to expand the gardens and farmers' market serving the area. In February, the council received a notice terminating the grant. The USDA had determined the award 'no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities.' 'What do you do if you don't support providing access to food to people who don't have it? Wouldn't this make your job easier?' she said. 'I think it's absurd. It doesn't make any sense.' The withdrawal of federal funding for new lab equipment and vaccines means the city may be less prepared for the next pandemic. The Kansas City Health Department's laboratory is badly in need of an upgrade, with equipment dating to when the building opened in the 1990s. One basement space is water damaged and rarely used. Another has equipment that is so inadequate that the city has to ship samples to a state laboratory 150 miles away, causing inefficiencies, agonizing waits for results and delayed response times. But the funding for lab upgrades was abruptly eliminated last month as part of the Trump administration's $11.4 billion cancellation of federal grants to states for public health. An HHS spokesperson said the agency's downsizing, including cutting jobs and consolidating divisions, would save money and make the organization more efficient. As for the $11.4 billion in grant funding cuts, the spokesperson said, 'HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.' The IRS has offered a similar rationale for its downsizing, saying it is making process improvements that will ultimately more efficiently serve the public. Musk said last year that Trump's budget cuts would cause a 'temporary hardship' that would soon put the economy on stronger footing. One local economic researcher said it remained unclear just how deep that hardship will be in Kansas City, including whether it will just slow growth or cause population losses. 'It's a big burden that's being placed on a narrow group of people,' said Frank Lenk, director of the Office of Economic Development at the Mid-America Regional Council, a nonprofit of city and county governments in the Kansas City region. 'It will definitely take some of the steam out of the local economy.' Trump has credited DOGE with helping end 'the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars,' saving billions to help improve the nation's finances. The White House didn't respond to questions about Kansas City. But Trump said recently he would invite the Kansas City Chiefs to the White House to make up for a 2020 Super Bowl victory celebration that was canceled during the pandemic.
