Trump administration backs off Head Start budget cuts, but problems persist

The Trump administration appears to be stepping back from its earlier proposal to cut Head Start funding nationwide.

USA Today reported in April that the Trump administration was considering zeroing out Head Start funding in its 2026 budget proposal. But when the proposal was actually released May 2, it did not mention Head Start, and the Associated Press reported that an unnamed administration official said there would be “no changes” to Head Start funding.

But even if the administration were to keep all current Head Start funding in place, it already caused difficulties for the free federal child care and preschool program for low-income families​​ by freezing providers’ funds in January. Then, after ending that freeze, it slashed federal Head Start staff, making it difficult for programs at the local level to get their funding — something that the Pennsylvania Head Start Association, Wisconsin Head Start Association, Head Start providers and parents are suing the White House over.

“Our programs have continued to have various challenges accessing their funds doing drawdowns,” Kara McFalls, deputy director of the Pennsylvania Head Start Association, said. “We have had programs not receive (funds for) upwards of more than two weeks, waiting for their funds, and they’ve had to draw lines of credit, and they’ve had to pay interest on those lines of credit.”

Jen Bailey, executive director of Wisconsin Head Start provider Reach Dane, has plenty of experience on that front.

Reach Dane was scheduled to make payroll a couple days after the funding freeze started, and that left the program scrambling.

Bailey said at the time that Reach Dane didn’t receive the funding it was entitled to until Feb. 10, nearly two weeks after the freeze was first announced. In order to make ends meet during that time, the provider had to draw down $500,000 from its reserves, as well as take out a line of credit for about $150,000 — something it had to pay interest on.

‘“The interest we have to pay on that is not an allowable expense of federal funds, so we actually have to pay that with our corporate money, which we’re lucky to have — which doesn’t seem quite right to me — or use funding from our reserve,” she said.

The decimation of Head Start regional offices has left Reach Dane in a precarious situation.

“The people that are listed as our contacts are the ones that were fired when they closed our regional office,” Bailey said. “(Office of Head Start) held a nine minute webinar, I think it was last week, where they just shared a map of how they’ve redrawn the regions. Now it’s basically shrunk in half, but we still have not been given any new contact people. So if we had an emergency, there’s not anyone to ask.”

Reach Dane’s next funding award should come next month, but there’s some uncertainty about that.

“Our HR department, obviously, is interviewing teachers and new staff for next program year in the fall,” Bailey said. “And people are asking questions, you know, is this funding stable? Will my job still be here in the fall? And we don’t fully have an answer to that.”

Reached for comment, an HHS spokesperson blamed the previous administration for providers’ difficulties receiving funds.

“As Secretary Kennedy mentioned today, HHS remains committed to maintaining Head Start operations,” the spokesperson said May 14. “The funding for these centers is congressionally allocated and continues to be disbursed. Outdated and inefficient systems set forth by the Biden Administration are contributing to delays in the disbursement of these funds. This is exactly the reason why the reorganization needed to take place — to streamline operations and ensure better health outcomes for American families.”

The president’s executive order barring diversity, equity and inclusion activities from receiving federal funding, and later actions by the Department of Health and Human Services targeting such activities, also created confusion, McFalls and Bailey said, and is another subject of the lawsuit against the White House.

“If you do an analysis of the Head Start program performance standards, which are the rules that we have to follow to implement the program, there is a lot in there that would fall under diversity, equity, inclusion,” Bailey said. “We’re required to prioritize kiddos with disabilities for enrollment. We’re required to provide support for dual language learners. So we can’t meet the standards that have been defined for us with that executive order.”

Ming-Qi Chu with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the Head Start lawsuit, broke it down further. HHS, which oversees Head Start, has enacted a new requirement for Head Start programs to certify they do not participate in any diversity, equity and inclusion activities in order to receive funding.

“So if you accept the money, you’re essentially making that certification, and if that certification is found to be false, if the government says actually you are doing diversity, equity and inclusion, then that subjects you both to termination and clawback of funding, but also to liability under the False Claims Act,” Chu said.

It really puts Head Start programs in an untenable position, she said.

“Providers don’t know, is recruiting for someone who is Spanish speaking a violation of this ban, and could that subject them to disastrous penalties or not?” she said “And on the other hand, if they don’t, if they’ve stopped recruiting for that position, then are they in violation of the Head Start Act and their obligations under the Head Start Act, and could they lose funding that way?”

McFalls said that, overall, while the Trump administration may be saying for now there are no changes to Head Start funding, its actions tell a different story.

“This has been a continuation of what feels very much and looks very much like dismantling,” she said. “If we can’t do our work, if we cannot be able to access funds, then we are not doing the best we can, and communities are being threatened by the loss of their services and families aren’t sure how to trust their Head Start program when it’s out of their control.”

And that’s a larger problem when Head Start programs underpin the places they serve.

“They are the economic engines of their communities,” McFalls said. “They employ staff. They employ the families in the community. They provide wraparound services in a lot of ways, depending on their agency. They might be in school districts or intermediate units or standalone nonprofits, community action programs, and so they’re integrated into the fiber of every community, and in our state, families rely on them.”