Here’s what the Trump administration’s Head Start overhaul means for families
The National Head Start Association said the changes could weaken the quality of services.
President Donald Trump’s administration is proposing a new set of regulations that would drastically overhaul Head Start, a free federal childcare and preschool program for low-income families. Advocates say the new regulations would make the program weaker.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families announced on Aug. 6 a list of proposed changes to the Head Start performance standards, or the set of rules used to guide Head Start classrooms around the country. The new rules would, among other things, mandate English-only education, remove federal student-staff ratios and eliminate required minimum hours of operation.
The agency said the proposal would reduce the federal government’s role in administering the program and give more responsibility to individual states, while using the reduction in expenses to preserve or expand an estimated 236,000 Head Start slots nationwide.
“Head Start’s greatest strength is the people who make the program work, and we seek to empower them to work directly with parents to best meet the needs of their local communities,” said Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams in an Aug. 6 press release.
The National Head Start Association, a nonprofit that represents the approximately 750,000 children enrolled in the program and their families, called the plan “the most significant revision of the program’s governing regulations in its 61-year history.”
The organization’s review of the HHS proposal found that, if finalized, the changes would weaken the quality of services Head Start provides, including health screenings and support for children with disabilities.
“We support real modernization. We support reducing unnecessary paperwork. We support giving local leaders room to make decisions that work for their communities,” said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of NHSA, in an Aug. 25 press release. “But fewer rules cannot equal fewer results. The question is whether these changes give programs more ability to deliver – or simply ask them to deliver more with less.”
The public has until Oct. 6 to comment on the proposal before HHS can move toward a final rule. Here’s an overview of what the proposed changes could mean for Head Start students and families.
Hours-of-service requirements
Currently, Head Start has specific minimum requirements for how many hours and days preschool centers, Early Head Start services, and home-based family childcare programs must operate. Under the proposal, those requirements would be removed.
The preschool centers would still have to follow federal law, which requires they provide programming for three hours a day.
For the Early Head Start and the family childcare programs, however, providers would be able to shorten their schedules. In theory, they would set schedules based on their families’ and communities’ needs, but the Administration for Children and Families acknowledges that families might need to secure alternative childcare arrangements or might miss work time if programs choose to shorten their schedules.
English-only instruction
The proposed rules would require Head Start to “minimize non-essential multilingual services and redirect resources toward English-language education and assimilation.” This means that all classroom instruction would have to be only in English, with the exception of tribal programs. If a student’s native language is not English, the proposed rules specify that teachers must prioritize teaching English to the student.
This would be a significant departure from the current Head Start standard, which requires bilingual support for children and families and requires instruction for both English and dual-language learners.
Services for children with disabilities removed
The proposal would remove Head Start’s specific requirements for disability services and replace them with a general directive to comply with applicable federal and state law.
The Administration for Children and Families said removing the disability guidelines is intended to streamline overlapping regulations while maintaining protections for children with disabilities required by statute.
Elimination of federal staff-student ratios
The federal staff-student ratio would be eliminated under the proposal. Head Start programs would instead be required to establish a group size and ratio based on applicable state and local laws.
The Department of Health and Human Services notes that current ratio requirements were adopted to promote child safety, effective supervision, and high-quality early learning environments. The department also emphasized that the current requirements are more restrictive than nearly every state’s early childhood system, and said the proposed changes would give Head Start programs the flexibility to serve more children.
Cutting health and development screenings
Head Start provides children with health, vision, hearing, and developmental screenings within 45-90 days of their first day, as part of the program’s school-readiness mission. The proposed changes would remove the screening window and allow local Head Start agencies to set their own timelines for child screenings and assessments, although it doesn’t specify any accountability measures to ensure children are being screened.
