Families brace for continued gaps in Head Start service

Vital federal funding is on the way for Head Start centers that have been thrown into crisis by the government shutdown, but it could take time before some children who rely on the federal program can return to preschool.

Some centers that did not benefit from federal payments had to lay off staff. Others have had to close their doors completely, destabilizing thousands of needy families across the country. And operators fear it could take additional weeks to process late payments.

Even when agencies receive long-delayed grants, centers will have to rehire staff members and bring back families — both perhaps wary of the instability of the program, which relies almost entirely on federal grants.

“The damage was done in many ways,” said Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association. “We know it will take time to refuel.”

About 140 Head Start programs representing 65,000 spaces did not receive their annual grants during the 43-day shutdown, which ended when President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday evening.

Head Start serves children from low-income families from birth to age 5. The program provides a variety of services to families, such as early learning, support for children with disabilities, free meals and health screenings.

Once the shutdown ends, the federal Office of Head Start will accelerate funding and contact affected Head Start programs to share when they can expect federal money, said Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the program.

Head Start operators predict it could take weeks.

Federal workers are returning to “a mountain of work” that will take time to process, Haimowitz said. That doesn’t just include sending missed grants: Other paperwork for a range of technical issues has been delayed since layoffs at the Office of Head Start earlier this year, she said.

“These delays have just been piling up since April, through no fault of the officials in place at the Office of Head Start,” Haimowitz said. “They only have half the capacity they had a few months ago. »

Families prepare for the worst case scenario

Depending on how quickly federal agents can send out funds, the backlog in grant renewals could overflow and affect Head Start agencies that are supposed to receive funding in December, operators said. Some of the families who attend these centers are already preparing for this worst-case scenario.

Gena Storer, who works as a home health aide in Xenia, Ohio, is trying to “make as much money as possible” in case her daughter’s Head Start center closes. Center staff told parents hours before the government reopened that they still planned to temporarily close the center on Dec. 1 if funding was delayed, Storer said.

If the center closes, Storer’s 4-year-old daughter Zarina will stay home until it reopens. Storer will then have to adjust her work schedule to ensure she can be home with Zarina while her fiancé works 12-hour shifts at a Target distribution center.

Uncertainty over federal SNAP food assistance payments also added to Storer’s family’s stress. Storer had worked overtime during the shutdown to help support his 72-year-old mother, who also receives SNAP benefits.

“If my mother didn’t have our help to help her, what would she do? » said the 31-year-old.

For Storer, Head Start has been more than a reliable option for child care. Zarina was receiving speech therapy to address her lack of speech. But since starting Head Start in September, Storer said she has noticed her daughter becoming more talkative and outgoing because she learns by talking with her classmates.

Programs pay out of pocket to keep doors open

Programs that have remained open without guarantees of reimbursement from the federal government could also face additional financial challenges. At Louis Russ Daycare in Knox County, Indiana, he and his wife are considering opening a pop-up toy store in their garage to make up for the money they might lose by staying open.

Russ and his wife began operating a daycare in their home in April and soon after partnered with the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, a nonprofit that serves the children of migrant farm workers in 10 states. Six of the eight children in Russ’s daycare are funded by Head Start.

The East Coast Migrant Head Start project was one of the programs hit by a lack of funding, resulting in more than 1,000 children being excluded from their centers. Russ and his wife also stopped receiving their Head Start payments at the end of October, but the decision to keep their home open was a “no-brainer,” Russ said. Providing children with consistency during an otherwise unpredictable time was important to them, he said.

“Staying open and continuing to welcome the kids we have, that was the easy part,” he said. “Figuring out how we’re going to stay open if this goes on too long, that’s the tricky part.”

It is difficult to manage the program without knowing when funding will be released. Russ and his wife have already taken a pay cut and have another employee on their payroll. About three-quarters of their budget goes toward payroll, Russ said, but other expenses like groceries and maintenance needs can add up quickly without income.

“Our program, being so new, we were operating pretty simply as is,” Russ said. “And especially in the child care industry, where the profit margin is not huge, there is limited room to maneuver when things like this happen.”