{"id":104208,"date":"2026-08-06T13:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=104208"},"modified":"2026-08-06T13:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:50:17","slug":"trump-admin-threatens-to-gut-head-start-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2026\/08\/06\/trump-admin-threatens-to-gut-head-start-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Admin Threatens to Gut Head Start Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Carolyn Jones, CalMatters<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration appears poised to gut the central policies that shape Head Start, a popular and long-established early childhood education program that serves the country\u2019s neediest children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Health and Human Services announced the changes Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs posted a notice that it intends<\/a> to \u201csignificantly reduce regulatory requirements\u201d for Head Start, effectively stripping the program of the unique features that have defined it since its creation in the mid 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That announcement came in late May and will likely go through a review process before becoming official in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency doesn\u2019t specify what exactly it plans to cut, but reports indicate <\/a>that it could be most of the program\u2019s standards and guidelines. That may include low student-to-teacher ratios, minimum teacher qualifications, and stipulations that Head Start accept all income-eligible children regardless of whether they\u2019re disabled or if their parents are citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency also suggested it wants to shift Head Start funding to the states, although it didn\u2019t specify how or when this would happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe complete gutting of these goals ignores what we know really works in early childhood education,\u201d said Deborah Stipek, a former dean of the Stanford School of Education who\u2019s researched the topic. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to spend money on something, wouldn\u2019t you want it to have positive effects?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency said in its announcement it expects the cuts to be \u201cwell-received by Head Start programs, since they will welcome reduced (administrative) burden and increased flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also said it would allow local Head Start programs to keep policies that \u201cbest address the needs of their communities.\u201d But individual Head Start programs are unlikely to comply with standards that aren\u2019t required, particularly if they\u2019re facing pressure to serve more students, said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California, a nonprofit that advocates for California\u2019s 1,813 Head Start centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same announcement, the agency said it also planned to boost the nutrition and physical exercise components of Head Start, but didn\u2019t offer further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It will be very different\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So far, Head Start has evaded major budget cuts<\/a>, and the federal government doesn\u2019t appear poised to slash funding now. A handful of California Head Start programs shuttered<\/a> during the government shutdown last fall, but reopened when legislators returned to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a reduction in standards would, eventually, have a significant impact, Cottrill said. It\u2019s likely Head Start will have less qualified teachers, larger class sizes and fewer opportunities for parent involvement, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose standards are what make Head Start a high quality program,\u201d Cottrill said. \u201cHead Start will still exist, but it will be very different from what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head Start, launched in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s War on Poverty, is a federal childcare program that serves the country\u2019s lowest-income families \u2013 those earning less than $33,000 a year for a family of four. The federal government issues grants directly to school districts, nonprofits or other organizations that run Head Start programs, sometimes in combination with other funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head Start offers health screenings, meals, curriculum focused on literacy and math, and resources for parents such as parenting classes. Children who attend Head Start are more likely to go to college and hold professional jobs later in life, a 2022 study found<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In California, about 70,000 children are enrolled in Head Start. The number would be higher but programs have had to turn away families because they struggled to hire staff. Early childhood educators sometimes earn less than fast food workers<\/a> and turnover is high, Cottrill noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cost of losing disability screening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One Head Start standard that could be especially costly to eliminate is disability screening. Identifying and addressing disabilities such as dyslexia early can reduce the need for special education later on, potentially saving thousands of dollars, Stipek said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth Meloy, an early childhood education consultant who worked on the federal government\u2019s Head Start standards, said that simplifying and streamlining the standards is probably a good idea. Navigating too many standards may be overly burdensome for some local Head Start programs, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But gutting them entirely would be a disaster, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHead Start is built around a mission of giving low-income children a path to sustained education and life outcomes,\u201d Meloy said. \u201cThese changes lack the thoughtfulness that these children deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story<\/a> was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was originally produced by\u00a0Stateline<\/a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Oklahoma Voice, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carolyn Jones, CalMatters The Trump administration appears poised to gut the central policies that shape Head Start, a popular and long-established early childhood education program that serves the country\u2019s neediest children. The Department of Health and Human Services announced the changes Thursday. The federal Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs posted a notice that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[8613],"class_list":["post-104208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-headstart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104209,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104208\/revisions\/104209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}