by Deepika Shrestha ‘27

Newly proposed regulations weaken standards of care at Head Start.

Head Start is an anti-poverty program, created in 1965, that provides preschool and childcare to children before the age of five. The program each year serves over 700,000 children who don’t speak English at home, face homelessness or foster care, and children with disabilities. The program contributes to children’s early development and serves resources to struggling families by providing more financial stability. The federally funded program Head Start historically has been governed by strict regulations from the federal government, but the Department of Human and Health Services (HHS) under the Trump administration proposed a major erasure of Head Start performance standards. 

These standards include teacher student ratio, medical screening, dental exams, in-home visits, and the percentage of homeless and foster children spots set aside.  Alongside these changes, the HHS is proposing adding requirements like English only instruction with the exception of tribal communities, nutrient dense foods following the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and a cap on administrative overhead cost. These changes may not seem harmful in their wording but in reality they will lower the standard of care in Head Start. 

One of the main goals of the erasure is to reduce funds spent on Head Start. The federal government wants to cut Head Start centers administrative expense cap from 15 percent to 5 percent, which is estimated to save over two billion dollars. HHS wants to increase the enrollment of children by over 200,000  as a result of the cuts. 

While Head Start was designed to protect the vulnerable, removal of these regulations does the exact opposite. The program has enrolled a certain number of students to fit teacher-student ratios per age group, which provides more specialized care per child.  Removing guidelines on how to screen for disabilities, requiring children to brush their teeth once daily, and doing home visits, does not support children. It puts them in a more vulnerable spot when they do not get specialized care from their teachers. It can also bring up safety concerns when there are more children than teachers available. 

  When the government cuts funding towards the program it also limits the amount of resources given towards children and their families. Many families depend on the program to provide health screening and behavioral support towards their child. Head Start centers tend to provide resources to families like job training, housing resources, and adult education. These valuable resources and services are what HHS misleadingly refer to as “administrative costs.” 

While also eradicating requirements, the federal government wishes to add requirements that are not beneficial for young children at crucial points of development. Requiring English only instruction ignores research where children learn best when they build upon their native language first. 

It is wrong to decrease federal funding in order to enroll more children in the program. Erasing regulations and adding requirements has no benefits to children, families, and teachers. The only one benefiting from these changes is the federal government, which no longer has to spend on the most vulnerable.