By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Head Start preschool programs for low-income U.S. children are scrambling to cope with funding cuts and delays, as they feel the squeeze of President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting drive.
Local administrators and advocates for the program that serves nearly 800,000 children and families say the closure of five U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offices that oversee the program in Chicago, Boston, New York, Seattle and San Francisco has led to delays in processing grant applications.
Adding to the strain, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency released $943 million less in congressionally-approved funding for distribution through April 15 compared with the previous year, according to congressional Democrats’ most recent estimates.
The delays left hundreds of families searching for costly private care for children through the age of five, according to Head Start association executives in Wisconsin, Illinois and Washington state. Administrators have sought bank loans or other lines of credit to meet their payrolls, as grant approval deadlines loomed.
Congress appropriated $12.27 billion to the program in the fiscal year ending September 30. That funds 17,711 Head Start centers across the U.S., according to Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association.
“The administration continues to slow-walk grants,” Jennie Mauer, executive director of the Wisconsin Head Start Association, said in a telephone interview.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said in an email that the agency is following Trump’s drive to cut spending and that the closure of regional offices in high-cost cities would not reduce services.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., added in a statement, “I will ensure that the next generation of families living in poverty have access to this vital program that offers what they need to thrive.”
Head Start focuses on establishing an educational foundation for disadvantaged children and arming them with the social skills needed to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. It teaches early math and reading skills and provides dental, mental and nutritional health services to children and parents at the prenatal stage through birth.
CLOSURES, DELAYS
One childcare program in central Washington state closed for a few days in late April while awaiting funding, said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Programs.
A Seattle Head Start program was awaiting approval on a grant request for property improvements needed to comply with state licensing requirements, Ryan said, adding, “Nobody is getting back to them.”
Another Washington state pre-school program was unable to provide vision screenings while it awaited money for new equipment. Around 15% of all enrolled Head Start children have disabilities.
At a Friday press conference, Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean said a program in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, submitted a grant application in January.
“In five months they’ve received no updates. Nothing,” Dean said, adding that the program runs out of money on May 31 and would result in 360 children losing access to Head Start education and care and 85 employees laid off.
Asked about these problems, a HHS spokesperson blamed “outdated and inefficient systems set forth by the Biden administration.”
1960S ROOTS
An outgrowth of 1960s civil strife, Head Start aimed to provide opportunity for disadvantaged Black families.
The program, which celebrated its 60th anniversary on Sunday, has served 40 million racially diverse children and parents now at or below the $32,150 federal poverty line for a family of four living in the continental U.S.
The program also is accessible to children who are homeless or in foster care.
U.S. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said regional office closures hinder “investigating child health and safety incidents and providing training and technical assistance.”
Illinois Head Start Association Executive Director Lauri Morrison-Frichtl said the administration requirement that anything related to “diversity, equity and inclusion” be scrubbed from federal grant applications was proving particularly onerous.
“DEI is core to our mission,” she said in a phone interview, adding that federal regulations require hiring teachers who reflect classroom children. “If it’s a majority of Latinos we need to have a Spanish-speaking teacher in that classroom.”
‘MONEY WE DIDN’T HAVE’
Parents with Head Start children fret over program funding going forward.
Maria and Omar Castro of Chicago have one biological son and are guardians to two brothers, all of whom are aged between three and five and are enrolled in Head Start. An eight-year-old biological daughter attends public school.
Maria, 33, said the two brothers experienced developmental delays, requiring speech and other Head Start assistance.
“Obviously that was money we didn’t have,” Castro said. “I just needed support.”
The conservative Heritage Foundation urged the termination of Head Start in its “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Trump administration, saying the programs “have little or no long-term academic value for children.”
The National Head Start Association disputes that claim, noting that participants are 12% less likely to live in poverty as adults and 29% less likely to receive public assistance.
Congress is weighing Head Start funding for the next fiscal year. A partial White House budget detailing major spending increases and reductions across the federal government made no mention of Head Start.
Castro, whose children are enrolled in the program, said that cuts “would be a blow to the family.” While the two older boys will be transitioning to kindergarten, the youngest who is continuing in Head Start “would have nowhere else to go.”
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
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