More Than 100 Head Start Programs Face Closure Amid Government Shutdown

About 65,000 children attend the programs.

A child on a bus at a Head Start program, in an undated file photograph. Mario Villafuerte/Getty Images

Some Head Start facilities, which serve young children from lower-income families, are set to lose funding due to the government shutdown.

About 140 Head Start programs across 41 states and Puerto Rico will lose operational funding on Nov. 1, absent action from Congress, according to the National Head Start Association.

Head Start, a federally funded program that provides free child care and preschool to lower-income families, has about 1,600 facilities.

The facilities that will lose funding employ about 22,432 workers and provide care for about 65,000 children, or about 10 percent of the preschool kids in Head Start, the association estimates.

“With each passing day of the shutdown, families are pushed closer to crisis. In fact, on November 1, 65,000 Head Start children in communities across America are at risk of losing the learning, nutrition, health services, and the stability they depend on,” Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the group, said in a statement.

“Their families may have to forgo days of work and their employers may be affected as well. Congress must act now to end the shutdown and protect these children, families, and communities.”

The federal government spent $12.2 billion on Head Start in fiscal year 2024. The 1,600 programs receive funding at different points in the year. The other programs will not run out of funding until later dates, the association said.

Tommy Sheridan, a spokesperson for the organization, told The Epoch Times in an email that the facilities that do lose funding may not close.

“Many of them are trying to leverage other funds, including state/local resources, reserves, other accounts that they have flexibility with, to keep their doors open as long as possible, and they will be able to reimburse those accounts when the shutdown finishes,” he said.

Six programs serving 6,500 children already lost grants on Oct. 1 because of the shutdown. One closed for a day or two, but reopened with community support, Sheridan said.

Sheridan said several other programs have said they will be forced to close soon without new funding.

“The simplest solution would be to have Congress and the President resolve the shutdown,” he said.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which runs Head Start with community organizations, did not return a request for comment.

The Senate on Tuesday failed to approve a measure that would provide new funding for the government. The measure had been advanced by the House of Representatives.

The 54–45 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to end debate and bring the measure to an up-or-down vote under Senate rules.