Latest news with #OfficeofHeadStart
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Barring undocumented kids from Head Start does not serve our nation
As President Trump's deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development and director of the Office of Head Start during his first term, I have seen firsthand the positive impact of his leadership. His dedication to streamlining government resulted in changes to the Head Start system that supported its programs' commitment to continued quality improvement. As well, his response during COVID-19 kept Head Start programs operating and serving children and families and paying staff when many others were not able to do so. I was proud to work under the president's leadership. That's why I feel compelled to share my perspective on the recent interim rule that would prevent Head Start programs from serving children whose immigration status is in question. This is a complex issue, but when it comes to our youngest children — babies and preschoolers — there are some simple considerations to keep in mind. First and foremost: Let's not use children to solve an adult problem. Even if we wanted to apply this policy, determining eligibility would be a problem. How would providers determine the status of a 6-week-old baby or a 3-year-old child? Are we asking teachers to check the legal status of parents? What will that process look like, and who will be responsible for it? And if a child is found to be here without legal status, what happens next? Are we prepared to turn them away from preschool? It seems the real target here may be the parents, but the impact will fall on the children. No child — and certainly none under 5, the age group Head Start serves — has any control over how they arrived in this country. These children are among the most in need of our care. As long as they are here, the United States — the greatest nation on Earth — should find a compassionate and practical way to respond. I might also suggest that ignoring an entire population of young children is a recipe for disaster for the future of our nation. Research is clear: The human brain is 80% fully developed by age 3 and 90% by age 5. Head Start has 60 years of proven success, helping more than 40 million children grow into productive, healthy adults. Teachers, doctors, clergy, military personnel, philanthropic leaders and members of Congress are proof of those 60 years of results. Additionally, we have a 60-year track record of bipartisan support and success in producing healthier children, safer neighborhoods, more parents working and contributing, and fewer families needing public assistance. If we ignore a vulnerable portion of this generation of young children, we risk greater dependency on government support in the future and miss an opportunity to strengthen our nation. A child's future depends on a strong start. As long as these children are here, their future should matter to us. Is the goal to use Head Start children as a way to reach their parents? If so, I urge us to reconsider: Let's not use children to solve an adult problem. I believe there may be some unintended consequences of this rule that deserve a closer look, particularly when it comes to our youngest children. There may also be some misconceptions about Head Start's role. The idea that families are crossing the border primarily to access preschool simply isn't supported by data. Head Start's mission is to give children living in this country the best possible start in life, and with more information, we can find a solution that strengthens both our immigration system and our nation's future. The president has shown the courage to tackle tough issues. He also has the responsibility to ensure our solutions reflect the best of who we are. Denying basic support to children who are in this country runs counter to the ideals that make America great. I am confident he will take a closer look at this rule and find a way forward that protects children while upholding our nation's values. Given all that Head Start does for the country's youngest learners and their futures, there is no good reason to make it harder for children to access this life-changing opportunity. Deborah Bergeron, a former deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development and director of the Office of Head Start, is deputy director at the National Head Start Assn.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Lutheran Services Florida steps aside from leading Head Start in Duval County amid federal rebid
Big changes are on the horizon for early childhood education in Duval County, as Lutheran Services Florida (LSF) will no longer lead the region's Head Start program. The federal Office of Head Start has notified LSF that it plans to begin negotiations with a different provider for the role. LSF has led the Duval County Head Start program for over a decade, serving between 1,000 and 1,400 children annually with early education, family support, and wraparound services. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< Despite this long-standing presence, LSF officials said the decision to transition program leadership is not due to performance concerns. 'This decision has nothing to do with performance,' said Maria McNair, director of the LSF Head Start program. 'It's part of a standard federal rebid process designed to ensure continued program quality.' The rebid process, required periodically by the federal government, opens up leadership of Head Start programs to new applicants to ensure high standards are being met. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] While the name of the new provider has not yet been announced, the change is expected to impact the nearly 160 employees currently working under the LSF program. McNair says efforts are being made to help staff transition. 'We're trying to ensure that the majority of our employees transition over to the new organization,' she said. Despite losing the lead role for Head Start in Duval, LSF isn't leaving the area. The organization will continue offering Early Head Start services for children under age three, supported by a newly renewed five-year grant. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] 'We are still going to provide services here in Duval County for Early Head Start, which is for children who are under three. Our contract for the particular Grant was renewed for the next five years,' McNair confirmed. The Office of Head Start has not yet provided additional details or a timeline for when the transition to the new provider will begin. Requests for comment have not yet been returned. Action News Jax will continue to monitor this developing story and provide updates as more information becomes Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘They need us.' What would be the impact of Head Start cuts in Pierce County?
A 3-year-old boy with curly brown hair is whipping up pizza on a bright, multi-colored carpet in the corner. Jace decides that the food is cold but doesn't seem to mind. His teacher, Dairi Ray, holds out an empty hand, and Jace lunges forward for a big bite of his imaginary creation: 'Ahhm!' Jace was one of several toddlers Friday playing make believe, calculating animal shapes, coloring or pushing around a tiny bike in an Early Head Start classroom inside the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center in Tacoma, just outside the Hilltop neighborhood. 'Some of them just need the love sometimes,' Ray said. 'To me, these kids are my kids.' The federally funded Head Start program is an important safety net for low-income and homeless families with children up to 5 years old. Established in 1965, it serves at least hundreds of children in Pierce County, 15,000 across the state and more than 750,000 nationwide for free. The program promotes school readiness, provides meals and supplies, such as diapers and formula, and offers health screenings and parental support. Ayesha Williams' 2-year-old son is also in Early Head Start, and her three older children passed through the program. Williams and her husband work, and she's in school to be an ultrasound technician, meaning it would be a difficult juggling act without the day-long care that's offered Monday through Friday. 'Honestly, I don't know where we would be without them,' Williams said. Under President Donald Trump's administration, the child-care and preschool-education initiative's future has appeared uncertain. On May 5, USA Today reported that, despite the Trump administration's proposed elimination of all financial support, there were no changes to Head Start's funding in the White House's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Even so, there are concerns that the administration is trying to illegally dismantle the program. Head Start advocates sued the administration late last month in federal court in Washington, alleging 'a series of unrelenting attacks' on program providers. The lawsuit, whose plaintiffs include Washington state's Head Start association, noted that the federal government disbursed nearly $1 billion less in spending for the program over a three-month period this year compared to in 2024. The complaint also criticized a federal ban on diversity, equity and inclusion; a temporary sweeping freeze on federal funding in January that forced several providers to close indefinitely; and the abrupt shutdown last month of half of all Office of Head Start locations in the United States, including the four-state Region 10 Office in Seattle, which manages grant funding and oversees local agencies providing program services. As a result of office closures and layoffs, Head Start agencies in Washington and 22 other states faced 'unprecedented confusion that threatened their ability to operate and, indeed, their very existence,' the lawsuit said. On Friday, the Senate Democratic caucus sent an open letter to the public, warning that Republicans were trying to cut funding for important programs such as Head Start, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington. The state received more than $189 million from the program in fiscal year 2024, her office said. The Trump administration had proposed not funding Head Start in a draft budget document, calling the program's elimination consistent with its goals to give states and parents control of education, the Associated Press reported last month. A message left by The News Tribune for the U.S. Department Health and Human Services, which administers Head Start, was not returned. Federal grants are awarded to various groups to operate the program, including public agencies, private nonprofits and for-profits, schools and tribal governments. Head Start is provided at 33 sites in Pierce County, largely at schools, according to HHS data. Most of the sites are in Tacoma. Tacoma Public Schools operates slightly more than half of all sites, federal data shows. It was awarded a grant in 2019 to serve 400 low-income students within the district's boundaries for five years, according to TPS' 2021-22 annual report on the program. District spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy said last week that TPS currently serves the same number of Head Start students and didn't anticipate that the figure would change next year. Asked whether TPS held any concerns about future funding or staffing, McCarthy said only that the district understood that the Trump administration's budget proposal did not include any cuts. 'Access to high-quality early learning is critical to children in our community,' she said. 'We have continued our programming and planning for fall 2025 as normal.' Puget Sound Educational Service District operates in Pierce and King counties as one of nine regional educational agencies in the state. It subcontracts with other Head Start sites in Pierce County, including at the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center, federal data shows. PSESD is one of many Head Start funding grantees that gets its dollars from the Region 10 Office. About 95% of the federal funding it receives directly supports families and more than 1,200 children in Early Head Start or Head Start programs between Pierce and King counties, according to Decca Calloway, PSESD's executive director of Early Learning. Calloway did not immediately have information about how many children were served specifically in Pierce County. There are a dozen children enrolled for Early Head Start, which is geared toward children under 3, at the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center, according to the center's early learning director, Amalia Perez. Many more students at the location participate in the state-funded Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, which Calloway said couldn't simply absorb Head Start children if the federal program disappeared. Brandi Stratton, 46, has taught Head Start for seven years and at the center for 17 altogether. She works with the infant group. In her role, she said, she develops a personal relationship with parents, calling or texting regularly and checking in if their child hasn't been to class in a while, just to make sure everything is OK. A new family is beginning the program next week, according to Stratton. The mother, whose child is 6 weeks old, says she must return to work to make money. 'They need us,' Stratton said. On May 5, PSESD's leaders attended a presentation hosted by the liberal policy group, the Center for American Progress, about federal actions affecting Head Start. It was discussed that program providers across the country were seeing funds slow-walked or grants not approved on time. 'What was most insightful is that we're not alone on this journey,' Calloway said in an interview. A Head Start agency in Sunnyside, a city in south-central Washington, closed its doors in April after not receiving confirmation or updates about the status of renewed funding for weeks, affecting more than 400 children and 70 jobs, according to the federal lawsuit against the Trump administration. While PSESD hasn't had any issues being able to draw down on funding, Calloway said she lives with the fear that the Trump administration could continue to slow down delivering funds or change its mind about not enacting cuts to Head Start in its final budget. Stratton was also worried. 'It's scary,' she said. 'It's not fair to the family and these kids.' If its federal funding reimbursements were delayed, PSESD would have to stop services for more than 1,000 children, according to Calloway, at a time when she said most traditional child care in Pierce and King counties is full with wait lists of eight or nine months. There would also be staffing cuts and funds redirected from much-needed expenses such as classroom air conditioning and playgrounds. 'The other thing is, children can immediately be in danger,' she said, noting that kids experiencing homelessness could be on the street all day long. While there were concerns about what it could be facing, PSESD already has experienced effects of the Trump administration's agenda, according to Calloway. The agency has been consistently peppered with questions about what it is doing with the money it receives, despite spelling it out in grant applications; seen a decline in enrollment and attendance as documented families fear their children could be wrongly ensnared in immigration sweeps; and forced to calculate how to continue serving a diverse population without risking funds for violating the DEI ban, she said. Trump signed an executive order in January that terminated all related DEI activities from the federal government, including programs, grants, contracts and performance requirements, arguing that DEI was divisive and discriminatory. Running afoul of the ban could threaten funding, forcing local governments, schools and others to navigate what they consider broad and vague new standards. For example, Pierce County joined a lawsuit against the federal government earlier this month for tying critical homelessness contracts to requirements that grant funds not be used to promote DEI. PSESD and other Head Start providers serve the most vulnerable people in their communities by design. At least 10% of the children served in Early Head Start or Head Start by PSESD have a diagnosed delay or disability, which is a percentage mandated by the federal government, according to Calloway. The agency serves significant numbers of children from other marginalized communities, including impoverished families, immigrants and refugees, and non-English-first speakers. PSESD also seeks to address specific populations identified by data as being in need, but it's been difficult for the agency to declare that it wants its services to be inclusive and still feel secure about not jeopardizing its grant funding. 'We feel like we run the risk every day,' Calloway said. As a result, deciphering the way forward is tricky. Calloway framed the struggle as such: PSESD doesn't want to over-correct for the purposes of compliance and then not be able to serve kids who most need the program, but the agency also must do enough to comply or it could ultimately find itself not being able to serve the children anyway. 'If I'm being really honest with you, we don't know what we need to do,' she said. 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't.' In the Spotlight is a News Tribune series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email newstips@
Business Insider
29-04-2025
- General
- Business Insider
I was a low-income student who attended Head Start. I'm now an educator with a master's degree and owe all my success to the federal program.
As a child, I attended Head Start, a federally funded program for low-income families. Since it began as an eight-week project in 1965, Head Start has served more than 30 million children. In April, five of the Office of Head Start regional offices — in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle — were shuttered as part of the cuts to the US Department of Health and Human Services. As someone who attended Head Start, the early-childhood learning experience brought structure to my life for the first time and allowed me to learn and play in a safe and clean environment. I'm now an educator with a policy background, nearly a decade of experience on education and general welfare issues, and my master's degree. I believe my participation in Head Start helped make these opportunities possible for me. Head Start taught me valuable skills at a young age I still have some visceral memories from my time at Head Start. I remember having a symbol assigned to my nametag, which makes sense since most of us, children ages 3 to 5, were too young to know how to read. My older brother was the wagon, so I wanted to be that, too. There were lots of toys. I vividly remember the sand table. By playing, we built motor skills, practiced communication, and gained knowledge with every action. The classroom offered me a fun place to play, learn, and grow. Though I had older siblings, Head Start allowed me to play with my peers and socialize in a supportive environment. By meeting new friends and learning how to interact with people outside my family, I gained new skills and experiences, which I needed before heading to kindergarten. The program set me up for success My early years prepared me for the rest of my life. Today, I have a deep love for education. I work as an educator. I've taught in higher education, early childhood education, and K-12. I also worked as a Legislative Director for the New York City Council on policy issues related to education and poverty. Though I was born into poverty, I've been able to move into a middle-class life through educational opportunities. I'm forever grateful for my experiences at Head Start. My concern is that children today won't have access to the same opportunities that I had, which makes escaping poverty even harder. Every child deserves free, safe, and supportive opportunities to learn. The building blocks of learning helped me become the person, writer, and educator I am today.
Business Insider
29-04-2025
- General
- Business Insider
I was a low-income student who attended Head Start. I'm now an educator with a master's degree and owe all my success to the federal program.
When I was a kid, I joined the Head Start program as a low-income student. The federally funded program offered me a safe place to learn and socialize. I'm forever grateful for my time in Head Start. Growing up in rural Michigan offered me so many meaningful experiences, but my childhood was also intertwined with poverty. As a child, I attended Head Start, a federally funded program for low-income families. Since it began as an eight-week project in 1965, Head Start has served more than 30 million children. In April, five of the Office of Head Start regional offices — in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle — were shuttered as part of the cuts to the US Department of Health and Human Services. As someone who attended Head Start, the early-childhood learning experience brought structure to my life for the first time and allowed me to learn and play in a safe and clean environment. I'm now an educator with a policy background, nearly a decade of experience on education and general welfare issues, and my master's degree. I believe my participation in Head Start helped make these opportunities possible for me. Head Start taught me valuable skills at a young age I still have some visceral memories from my time at Head Start. I remember having a symbol assigned to my nametag, which makes sense since most of us, children ages 3 to 5, were too young to know how to read. My older brother was the wagon, so I wanted to be that, too. There were lots of toys. I vividly remember the sand table. By playing, we built motor skills, practiced communication, and gained knowledge with every action. The classroom offered me a fun place to play, learn, and grow. Though I had older siblings, Head Start allowed me to play with my peers and socialize in a supportive environment. By meeting new friends and learning how to interact with people outside my family, I gained new skills and experiences, which I needed before heading to kindergarten. The program set me up for success My early years prepared me for the rest of my life. Today, I have a deep love for education. I work as an educator. I've taught in higher education, early childhood education, and K-12. I also worked as a Legislative Director for the New York City Council on policy issues related to education and poverty. Though I was born into poverty, I've been able to move into a middle-class life through educational opportunities. I'm forever grateful for my experiences at Head Start. My concern is that children today won't have access to the same opportunities that I had, which makes escaping poverty even harder. Every child deserves free, safe, and supportive opportunities to learn. The building blocks of learning helped me become the person, writer, and educator I am today. Children, especially poor kids like me, deserve the opportunity to bloom.
