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The government shutdown is causing a wave of closures of Head Start centers, leaving working parents struggling to find child care and locking some of the country’s neediest children out of preschool.
Dozens of centers are missing out on federal grant payments that were due Nov. 1. Some say they will be closed indefinitely, while others are making do with emergency funding from local governments and school districts. The closure means Head Start students — who come from low-income homes, are homeless or are in foster care — are being deprived of preschool, where they are fed twice a day and receive therapy vital to their development.
,Children love school, and the fact that they can’t go is breaking their hearts,” said Sarah Sloan, who oversees small-town Head Start centers in Scioto County. ohioStaff told families they planned to close on Monday. “It is hindering our families’ ability to put food on the table and know that their children are safe during the day.”
A half-dozen Head Start programs never received the funding they expected in October, but there are now 140 programs that have not received their annual boost of federal funding. All told, the programs have the potential to help 65,000 preschoolers and prospective parents.
Among the preschools that will close as of Monday are 24 migrant And seasonal Head Start centers are spread across five states. Those centers, created to assist the children of migrant farm workers, typically operate 10 to 12-hour days to compensate for the parents’ long working hours on the farms.
children attending centers FloridaGeorgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Oklahoma recently came home with fliers warning of possible closures, along with information from other parents. Javier Gonzalez, CEO of the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, said the centers serving more than 1,100 children will now remain closed until the shutdown ends. Around 900 staff members at the centers have also been furloughed.
In the absence of other options for child care, the only option for some parents may be to bring their young child to the areas where they work, Gonzalez said.
Struggle to block food aid compounds for Head Start families
Many families who qualify for the federal preschool program also rely on food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps. That program was also on the verge of running out of money because of the shutdown, though a pair of federal judges on Friday ordered trump The administration will keep the program running with an emergency reserve fund.
This means many Head Start families are concerned about food assistance as well as the child care they rely on to make ends meet. For many parents a day without child care means a day without work – and a day without pay.
In Kansas City, Missouri, Jenny Hunt teaches children at the Emanuel Family and Child Development Center, a Head Start site, where her 6-month-old son is cared for in another classroom. The center said it could raise enough money to stay open for a few weeks, but that money would not last beyond November.
At dropoff time, parents often wear uniforms to fast food restaurants like Wendy’s and McDonald’s, she said. Some work as certified nurse assistants in nursing homes. Nobody has much extra money. He said, the biggest concern at this time is food.
“A lot of parents, you know, are trying to find food pantries,” she said. “I actually had a parent ask me, do I know a food pantry?”
More than 90% 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 grocery carts of some of the families using the center. But overall, families are upset, he said.
“Our parents are crying. Our parents don’t know what to do,” Mann said.
Some centers will still remain open
President Lyndon B. Launched six decades ago as part of Johnson’s War on Poverty, Head Start programs provide a variety of services beyond early education, such as medical and dental screenings, school meals and family support to children from low-income families who cannot afford other child care options.
The initiative is almost entirely funded by the federal government, providing little relief from funding disruptions.
Some that have missed grant payments have managed to stay open, with philanthropy, school districts and local governments filling the gaps. Others are relying on rapidly dwindling reserves and warning they may not be able to keep their doors open much longer.
“If the government doesn’t open back up, we’ll be providing less services every week,” said Reka Strong, the head of a social services nonprofit that runs Head Start centers in southern Washington state. It has already had to close one center and several classrooms and cut home-based visiting services. “It feels bleaker every day.”
In Florida, Head Start centers in Tallahassee and surrounding Leon County closed on October 27, but reopened the next day due to a grant from the Children’s Services Council of Leon County. Local school districts and churches have stepped up to provide meals for children.
“It takes a village to raise a child, and our village has come together,” said Nina Self, interim CEO of the Capital Area Community Action Agency.
But children in rural Jefferson and Franklin counties, where the agency runs two small Head Start centers, were not as lucky. They have been closed since the end of October.
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