The shutdown forces CA Head Start centers to begin closing

from Carolyn JonesCalMatters

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One California Head Start program has closed and three others face imminent closure due to a federal government shutdown affecting about 1,000 very low-income children and 270 teachers.

The closures will leave families scrambling for childcare and teachers without income. The longer the shutdown drags on, the more programs are at risk of being shut down.

“Losing a Head Start program has devastating effects not only on children and families, but also has a huge effect on the community,” said Melanie Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California. “Head Start is much more than a safe place for children to learn and grow — it’s a community hub. … The negative effect on regional employment and the local economy will be felt many times over.”

A Head Start program in Santa Cruz County has now closed, changing child care arrangements for hundreds of families.

Encompass Community Services, a Santa Cruz nonprofit, was forced to close all 11 of its Head Start centers Thursday because no one from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was available to process the group’s Nov. 1 grant renewal or send money.

“Head Start is part of the fabric of this community,” said Elaine Johnson, Encompass board chair. “It’s about babies, children and families who don’t have access to basic necessities.”

The centers, clustered mostly in the farmland around Watsonville, serve some of the region’s lowest-income families. About 300 children are enrolled in its program.

3,000 children at risk

Three more Head Start programs in California — in Los Angeles, the Central Valley and the far north of the state — also have a Nov. 1 grant deadline and face imminent closure. Four other programs with Dec. 1 deadlines will be the next to close if the government shutdown continues.

In total, more than 3,000 children and hundreds of teachers at those eight centers will be affected over the next month if Congress does not pass a budget.

Nationally, about 134 programs serving 65,000 children face closings this week because of the shutdown — with Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Missouri having highest numbers of affected children, according to the National Head Start Association. Even if Congress agrees to fund the federal government this week, reopening won’t happen immediately: It could take up to six weeks for the money to reach individual Head Start centers.

Popular and effective

Founded in the mid-1960s, Head Start is a free child care program that provides meals and a play-based curriculum for children from birth to age 5. Families can receive prenatal visits, referrals for medical and dental care, housing and employment assistance, and other services.

To qualify, families must earn below the federal poverty level of $26,650 a year for a family of three. In California, this bar is very difficult to find due to higher minimum wage. Last year, the state’s Head Start centers enrolled about 83,000 children in 1,835 centers.

Head Start, designed to give low-income families a boost, has largely been successful: Graduates have higher graduation rates, higher college enrollment rates and are less likely to live in poverty as adults. one study found.

It is also very popular. When President Donald Trump threatened to end the entire program last spring, Head Start advocates flooded Congress with pleas to save it from the budget ax. They succeededalthough other government cuts have left a deep impact on the organization and its families.

Potential cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programboth SNAP and Medicaid would have an immediate impact on Head Start families, while other recent cuts have already hampered Head Start’s day-to-day operations, Cottrill said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start, closed half of its regional offices in April, causing major delays in processing paperwork. For Head Start centers, that means months-long holds for routine purchases like dishwashers, Cottrill said, along with delays associated with minor program changes.

Backup plans

In Santa Cruz, Encompass was able to partner with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Watsonville to provide temporary child care to most families enrolled in Head Start starting next week. But the past few months of budget uncertainty have been unnerving, said Kim Morrison, interim executive director.

The organization is negotiating with multiple state and local agencies to develop backup plans to fund the $9 million-a-year program.

“We try to roll with the punches and just focus on serving our families,” Morrison said. “Head Start is a major national program. We just can’t imagine a world where it doesn’t exist.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.