Head Start fight reaches tipping point as advocates push back against proposed Trump changes

The Trump administration is moving ahead with big changes to Head Start , the federal early childhood education program that serves low-income families, to the outcry of advocates who say the proposals will limit access to the program, currently serving 700,000 students.

Interested parties have until Tuesday to submit their thoughts to the federal government on how the changes would affect the 17,000 Head Start centers nationwide. The government says it will then review the public’s comments and decide how to move forward with the proposal.

The tens of thousands of public comments made so far detail how advocates say the move will reduce support for parents, create bigger class sizes and push the kids who need Head Start the most, such as those experiencing homelessness, out of the classrooms.

The Trump administration said the new rules could add 236,000 new spots for Head Start and ultimately save $2.2 billion from its $12 billion budget.

The shift would require Head Start programs to follow their state’s rules regarding class sizes, education requirements, background checks and transportation practices, reducing cost and oversight at the federal level. Many of the services Head Start requires would become optional, including helping parents navigate Medicaid and mandatory parent-teacher conferences twice a year.

It would also require Head Start programs to be conducted entirely in English, even though a third of the children enrolled in it speak another language at home, according to The Associated Press .

“Head Start began as a bold commitment to the health, dignity, and potential of every child. My uncle, Sarge Shriver, founded the program on a simple conviction: strong families, wholesome nutrition, and healthy childhood development can change the course of a child’s life,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the program.

“Today, we are returning Head Start to those roots. We are removing unnecessary bureaucracy, strengthening nutrition and physical health, trusting parents and local communities, and opening Head Start to hundreds of thousands more children. That’s how we renew the promise of Head Start for the next generation,” he added.

But advocates say splitting up the obligations of Head Start programs could tear apart the cohesion and usefulness of the classroom for low-income families around the country.

“The quality could vary quite dramatically from state to state, depending on what their state child care licensing rules are,” said Aaron Loewenberg, senior policy analyst for early and elementary education at the nonprofit New America.

The National Institute for Early Education Research found only 19 states’ child care licensing requirements have the same standards as Head Start’s current staff-to-child ratio for age 4. For 3-year-olds, only six states have the same caregiver-to-child ratios as Head Start.

“In some states, you wouldn’t see a huge change because their state licensing regulations are pretty close to what the Head Start guidelines are federally. In other states, specifically more southern states, you could see quite a few more children in the classrooms with the same number of staff, which brings up all sorts of concerns — not just the quality of the education, but even just overall health and safety of the children,” Loewenberg said.

Head Start is also intended to assist low-income parents, not just their children. It has helped parents find housing, employment and food assistance, as well as creating plans for children with disabilities and encouraging parents to actively participate in leadership roles in their local programs.

Megan Newsome, a parent ambassador, said in a webinar with early childhood nonprofit Zero to Three that she became involved with Head Start very early on after her son spent time in the neonatal ICE and she was diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy.

“Head Start came to our lives, was introduced through the WIC [Women, Infants and Children] program, and so they were very a very big part of our lives, and they were able to be beneficial while I was going through my cancer treatments. And I knew that I had a very safe place for him to go while I was healing and recovering and going through that process,” Newsome said.

“While he started attending Head Start, he couldn’t feed himself, couldn’t hold a spoon, couldn’t, like, hold his own cup, and he was able to develop like very fast while going there, within a week or two weeks of going to Head Start. …They provided everything … I didn’t have to provide cups. I didn’t have to provide bottles. I didn’t have to provide formula. Everything was provided, which I thought was amazing. He developed super fast,” she added.

Without federal involvement, advocates worry this type of support for families will disappear.

The Hill has reached out to HHS for further comment.

The Trump White House has targeted Head Start before, including reportedly drafting a budget to eliminate it entirely, as well as attempting to block undocumented children from the program, a move that was struck down by the courts.

While the administration says the latest changes are to increase flexibility, advocates argue flexibility for Head Start will be reduced if the allowance for administrative costs goes from 15 percent to 5 percent.

It “is going to push a lot of Head Start operators either out of operations or cause them to have to make very difficult choices about how they run their programs. So, this is not about flexibility,” said Melissa Boteach, chief policy officer for Zero to Three.

Along with programs cut, other aspects of the proposal such as English-only classrooms and cutting the ability for homeless students to self-attest their status could inhibit students from entering the classroom.

“First and foremost is we just refuse to accept a potential final rule that would make it harder for children and families with the greatest need to access Head Start, I think that there’s some pieces in this rule and in this proposal, even in the administration’s own acknowledgement, that … we would see potentially a drop in enrollment for children and families experiencing homelessness,” said Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association.

After the public comment period is over, the Trump administration will have to review the comments and come out with a final rule, which would likely be challenged in court if it remained close to the current proposal.

“We’re committed to working leadership at HHS and in the administration to build a modernized Head Start system. But we do stand in opposition to any final rule that compromises on child access, on program quality or on local autonomy,” Sheridan said.