Head Start centers across the U.S. have received nearly $1 billion less in federal money compared with this time last year — and a lag in funding this week has caused some preschool classrooms for low-income children to close.
The federal government has distributed $1.6 billion for Head Start from Jan. 1 through Tuesday, compared with $2.55 billion issued during the same period last year, according to the office of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., which has been analyzing a federal database. Murray said the Trump administration had “slow-walked” funding appropriated by Congress.
Head Start, a child development program for more than half a million of the nation’s neediest kids, is federally funded, but runs through private and public schools.
The preschools are deeply reliant on the federal money they receive. On Wednesday, a delay in funding closed Head Start classrooms serving more than 400 children at Inspire Development Centers in Sunnyside, Washington. More than 70 staff have been laid off, and the center’s leaders don’t plan to reopen the classrooms until they receive federal money, Inspire CEO Jorge Castillo said.
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The lag in funding is the latest barrier Head Start preschools have faced under the Trump administration. During the brief freeze on federal grants after President Donald Trump took office, Head Start providers were unable to access their accounts. Unable to make payroll that day, several centers temporarily closed, cutting off free child care for low-income families, for whom a day without work is often a day without pay.
Then, this month, scores of federal Head Start employees were put on leave as part of Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government. At least five of the 12 regional offices for Head Start were closed as part of layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the National Head Start Association.
Advocates had warned that the layoffs could slow funding to Head Start providers, who are typically in touch with federal staff to receive their annual grants to operate a preschool. The Inspire centers typically receive annual notice of their funding amount in February, Castillo said, with a finalized award by May 1. But this year, the company has not heard from the Department of Health and Human Services.
A spokesperson for the department did not respond to a request for comment.
“If you eliminate the regional offices, you are going to slow down grant processing and, sure enough, they did. What Sunnyside is experiencing is not only predictable, it’s probable,” said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start. “The parents don’t have child care today. And those kids are missing out on programming.”
Head Start was started six decades ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. While the early childhood program has enjoyed bipartisan support since then, some Republicans have emphasized its shortcomings and criticized efforts to increase funding. And Project 2025, the policy blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, called for eliminating Head Start altogether.
“As he works to give more tax breaks to billionaires like himself, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to destroy Head Start— without a care in the world for the hundreds of thousands of working families across the country who depend on it,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in a statement. “We are beginning to see the devastating consequences: centers closing, kids kicked out of the classroom, teachers losing their jobs and entire communities losing out.”
Closing the central Washington Head Start centers means families will lose access to high-quality, free preschool, plus health checks, nutritional programs and interventions for developmental delays, Castillo said.
“And then we’re not even talking about children with learning disabilities, with physical disabilities or considered … homeless. This is devastating,” Castillo said.