The government shutdown has triggered a wave of Head Start center closures, leaving working parents scrambling to raise children and keeping some of the nation’s poorest children out of preschool.
Dozens of centers have missed out on federal aid payments that were scheduled to arrive on Nov. 1. Some centers have closed indefinitely, while others are surviving with emergency funding from local governments and school districts. The closure means that Head Start students — those from low-income families, homeless or in foster care — will no longer have access to preschool, where they are fed two meals a day and receive therapy essential to their development.
Kayliana Porter, a mother of three in Portsmouth, Ohio, had to break the news to her 4-year-old twins, Kalani and Kanoelani, that they would not be returning to school on Monday.
“It was like I was punishing them,” Porter said. “They just don’t understand. That’s the hardest thing.”
In most days, Porter is at home caring for her youngest daughter and running a small business that sells handmade ribbons and decorative charms for work badge lanyards. She had to suspend orders because the local Head Start closed all three girls home.
“Kids love school, but the fact that they can’t go to school hurts them,” said Sarah Sloan, who oversees Head Start centers around Portsmouth and Scioto County, Ohio. “This leaves families unable to put food on the table and make sure their children are safe during the day.”
Six Head Start programs did not receive their planned grants in October, and 140 programs are currently not receiving the annual infusion of federal funds. Overall, the program has the capacity to support 65,000 preschool children and their expectant parents.
Centers across the country serving at least 8,000 families closed Monday, according to the National Head Start Association. All Head Start centers in Little Rock, Ark., have closed, as have several local programs in Ohio, Iowa and Florida.
Head Start programs, which serve the children of seasonally mobile farm workers, were particularly hard hit. CEO Javier Gonzalez said more than 1,100 children in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Oklahoma were locked out of centers run by the East Coast Immigrant Head Start Project. Approximately 900 staff members across the center have also been furloughed.
Without care, some parents may leave older siblings home from school to babysit. Gonzalez said some people may bring their young children to the fields where they work.
Suspension of food aid further worsens the plight of Head Start households
Many families eligible for federal preschool programs also rely on food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps. The program had also been on the verge of running out of funding due to the shutdown, but on Friday two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to continue the program with emergency reserve funds.
This means that many Head Start families are worried not only about the child care they rely on to make ends meet, but also about food assistance. For many parents, a day without childcare means a day without work and without pay.
Janie Hunt of Kansas City, Missouri, teaches young children at Emanuel Family and Child Development Center, a Head Start site, and her 6-month-old son is cared for in a separate classroom. The center said it will be able to raise enough money to stay open for a few weeks, but that funding won’t last much beyond November.
She said parents often wear uniforms from fast-food restaurants like Wendy’s and McDonald’s when dropping off and picking up children. Some work as certified nursing assistants in nursing homes. No one has extra money. The most pressing concern right now is food, she said.
“A lot of parents are rummaging through their food pantries,” she says. “In fact, one parent asked me, ‘Do you know about food pantries?'”
More than 90 percent of the center’s families rely on SNAP food assistance, said Deborah Mann, the center’s executive director. A construction company offered to help fill the shopping carts of some families using the center. But overall, the family is struggling, she said.
“Some parents are crying. Some parents don’t know what to do,” Mann said.
Some centers will remain open for the time being
Launched 60 years ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, the Head Start program provides a wide range of services beyond early education, including medical and dental exams, school lunches, and family support for children from low-income families without other child care options.
The initiative is funded almost entirely by the federal government, with little cushion from funding disruptions.
Some schools that missed out on subsidy payments have managed to stay open, with philanthropy, school districts and local governments covering the gap. Others, dependent on rapidly dwindling reserves, have warned they cannot keep their doors open much longer.
“If the government doesn’t reopen, we’re going to see fewer services delivered each week,” said Reka Strong, president of a social services nonprofit that operates Head Start centers in southern Washington. She has already had to close one center and some classrooms and reduce home visiting services. “I feel gloomier day by day.”
In Florida, Head Start centers around Tallahassee and Leon County closed on Oct. 27, but reopened the next day thanks to a grant from the Leon County Children’s Services Council. Local school districts and churches are actively working to provide meals for children.
“It takes a village to raise a child, and our village is united,” said Nina Self, interim CEO of the Capital Area Community Action Agency.
But children in rural Jefferson and Franklin counties, where the agency operates two small Head Start centers, weren’t so lucky. We have been closed since late October.
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