Head Start closure leaves families in Santa Cruz County without child care

Hundreds of families in Santa Cruz County struggling for child care serve as warning of what could come as the continued federal government shutdown puts more Head Start centers at risk of closing.

As CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones explains, Encompass Community Services closed all 11 of its Head Start centers last week because there was no staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to process the nonprofit’s Nov. 1 grant renewal or send money. The centers serve some of the lowest-income families in the Watsonville farmland area and enroll about 300 students.

Although Encompass partnered with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Watsonville to provide temporary child care to families enrolled in Head Start this week, the future of the $9 million-a-year program remains uncertain.

Three more Head Start programs in Los Angeles, the Central Valley and northern California also have a Nov. 1 grant deadline and face imminent closure — likely affecting a total of 1,000 very low-income children and 270 teachers. Four programs with Dec. 1 deadlines could also be closed if the shutdown continues.

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

If Congress reaches a deal to end the shutdown this week, it could take up to six weeks for the money to reach Head Start centers. Encompass is currently negotiating with state and local agencies for an emergency funding plan.

• Kim Morrisoninterim executive director of Encompass: “We’re trying to roll with the punches and just focus on serving our families. Head Start is a big national program. We just can’t imagine a world where it doesn’t exist.”

Read more here.

Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino has emerged as one of the central figures in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

CalMatters reporters have been on the ground covering the attacks since they began, weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, in Kern County. Now we teamed up with Latino USA to tell the story of Bovino and the aggressive immigration crackdowns he’s led in California and beyond.

CalMatters’ Sergio Olmos and Latino USA’s Maria Hinojosa and Fernanda Echavarri lead listeners as they document attacks from Bakersfield to LA to Chicago. They follow a man who was arrested on his way home from work on the bus during the first weekend of the Los Angeles attacks and later deported to Mexico. They also spoke with elected leaders — including Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — about their efforts to repel the attacks.

Listen to the episode here.

As California leaders try to curb prison overcrowding, some state lawmakers and prison officials are pushing for single-person cells that they say could help prison inmates and the public are safewrites CalMatters’ Joe Garcia.

California’s 31 prisons are operating at about 120 percent of their collective design capacity. But the state’s prison population is shrinking, and four prisons have been closed so far under Newsom’s leadership. with another closure in the works.

These efforts are renewing talk of single-occupancy cells that could help reduce stress, anxiety and rates of physical harm among inmates. The San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, for example, is working to provide single-person cells to all inmates by the spring of 2026, according to a center spokesperson.

California lawmakers also considered a bill this session to create single-occupancy cell pilot programs in four state prisons. Some prison abolition and incarceration groups opposed the bill, however, arguing that providing more single-cell units interferes with the broader goal of closing as many prisons as possible. The measure was stalled in the legislature but is expected to be reintroduced next year.

Read more here.

Two federal judges issued rulings Friday ordering the Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay for federal food aid. While it’s unclear whether the administration will take action, CalMatters reporters spoke with CalFresh recipients and food bank organizers as aid remains reduced and the government shutdown drags on. Read more here.