Policy: The Trump Administration Wants To Make Big Changes To Head Start

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0:31When Head Start was founded, the idea was simple. Give children from low-income families a running start before kindergarten, not just with preschool classes and child care, but with health screenings and support for their families. Sixty years later, it serves more than three-quarters of a million children and their families every year. But the Trump administration thinks the program is too costly and inefficient. Last week, the administration proposed the most significant changes to Head Start in decades. The proposed changes eliminate many of the federal standards for how the programs are run.

1:03Over 1 ,400 regulations are affected. Instead, those decisions would be handed to the states. Officials say the changes will save money and open new slots for hundreds of thousands of kids. Critics say stripping the standards is the first step towards dismantling the program entirely. Later, we look at another federal anti-poverty program under pressure, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP. More than 4 million people have lost food stamp benefits since Congress expanded work requirements last year. I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A Podcast. Today, we ask who those people are and what's happened to them.

1:40But first, what the evidence says about whether Head Start works and what happens if those federal standards go away. That's right after this.

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2:39Let's jump into our conversation on Head Start with our first guest. Joining us from the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters here in D.C. is Assistant Secretary Alex Adams of the Administration for Children and Families, ACF Overseas Head Start at the federal level. Assistant Secretary, welcome. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here, Jen. So the administration proposed this overhaul of Head Start last week. It would cut more than a thousand regulations that govern how the program is implemented. What are some of the key regulations you're targeting? Well, first, let me back up and say Head Start is a program that is incredibly important to my boss, Secretary Robert F.

3:19Kennedy Jr. His uncles were involved in the creation of the program. So a lot of what we're trying to achieve here is go back to the basic building blocks that you said in the intro. We want children to be ready for kindergarten. We want families to have comprehensive wraparound supports. And a lot of what we're doing is just going back to the statutory principles. The statute was most recently updated in 2007, and it has strong protections. It outlines how Head Start programs are governed. It outlines civil right protections. It preferences children with disabilities, children experiencing homelessness, foster youth, et cetera, et cetera.

4:00And a lot of our message is the statute has a strong foundation. over time, regulation after regulation was added with a prominent rewrite in 2016 and more recently in 2024. And a lot of those regulations drove up the cost of Head Start and as a consequence, reduced access to Head Start. So you said at the beginning that there are 750 ,000 funded slots in Head Start, I'm afraid to say that is no longer the case. It's in the low 700 ,000s and likely to drop in the 600 ,000s. If we zoom out even further, I said one of the major rewrites was in 2016. Just before that, we had almost a million children in Head Start.

4:47So if the goal is to increase the slots, what regulations are you targeting to make that happen? All the ticky-tacky requirements that have been added in over time, hyper-specific requirements on how parent advisory councils are governed and on and on. So what we're doing is we're getting out of the mindset of adding regulations, adding cost, and reducing opportunity. If you look at the Biden administration alone and what they did in 2024, it eliminated 100 ,000 slots. So, you know, for the folks that believe in this program, and I'm among them, you want more kids to be able to access these beneficial services, not just child care, but wraparound support.

5:33The Biden administration eliminated opportunity for 100 ,000 children. So that means today there are fewer children with disability getting access to Head Start. There are fewer foster youth getting access to Head Start. There are fewer children of color getting access to Head Start and on and on and on. This reverses that trend. Well, we spoke to several Head Start associations who say they welcome a review of the existing rules and efforts to improve efficiency in the program, but they say they were not consulted on these proposed changes. Did you speak with grantees and state-level Head Start associations before developing this plan?

6:10So when you propose regulations, they're governed under the Administrative Procedures Act, and it sets up a 60-day public comment period. Proposed regulations are just that. They're proposed. They're not final. So this is our call for consultation for anyone with expertise in Head Start, finance, administration, et cetera, et cetera. If you give regulations in advance to certain special interests, it gives an unequal opportunity for people to comment. So it'd be improper to give the regulations to anyone in advance. That said, we've had conversations with a number of individuals that helped inform the conversations.

6:48I've visited Head Starts both individually and with Secretary Kennedy. We met with national associations that represent providers. We met with consultants. We met with folks who have early childhood expertise.

7:03We on the quality of the program, the services, et cetera, et cetera. So this was calibrated based on the totality of those conversations. You put it out as a proposed rule, and it triggers a 60-day comment period, and we look forward to active feedback to get it right. I will say the thing that is most clear to me as I visited multiple Head Starts, and I'm visiting another one today, is the thing that always comes across is the quality of the staff, the program directors, the navigators, the teachers, the teacher's aides, the nutrition specialist. These are some of the most high caliber individuals I have ever come across.

7:40Their heart is in it for the right reason. They're mission driven. They're purpose driven. And I'm confident in their ability to make programmatic decisions. What the rule does is instead of setting 1600 facilities under a one size fits all regime that's dictated by this building here in Washington, we're saying, I trust these individuals. I trust these program directors. They know their kids better than anyone in my building ever will. And they have these governance structures that are statutorily required that have parents involved actively in those decisions. Parents have more vested interest and stake in their children's future than anyone.

8:18Well, I just want to, we have limited time here, so I just want to point to something a lot of researchers are addressing in this proposal. And this is not a ticky-tacky requirement or regulation. This is about the student-to-teacher ratio. And researchers are saying that the very federal standards you're eliminating, high teacher qualifications, low student-teacher ratios are what produces good outcomes for Head Start. And they also point to concerns about child safety. So, for example, an estimated 80 % of children could see higher student-to-teacher ratios under these regulations. That's according to analysis by the Children's Equity Project.

9:00There are also significant changes to health and safety regulations under the proposal. So how are you responding to concerns that it's not just the ticky-tacky regulations, there are also fundamental parts of Head Start that would change and potentially be detrimental to children? What we're doing is we're taking the foot off of these providers from the federal government. So rather than having one-size-fits-all mandates that apply, whether you're in Boise, Idaho, or in New Hampshire, or in Tampa, Florida, we are providing local decision-making to those local program folks. Like I just said, I've visited them.

9:38I've gotten to know them. I see where their heart is. I trust them. It's unfortunate that people don't trust Head Start directors. It's unfortunate that there's a whole cadre of people out there who see them as bad actors who are going to make bad decisions for these children. That is not right. Assistant Secretary, part of the appeal of Head Start was that no matter where you were in the country, no matter what state, a child who was living in Mississippi in a low-income family would have the same experience of Head Start as a child living in Michigan. And so if we're leaving it up to states and there aren't these overarching regulations that ensure that a child in a different state isn't having a worse outcome than a child in a state one door over, how does removing those regulations prevent that from happening in the overall degradation of the program?

10:27Well, you're starting from the premise that these are bad actors who are going to make bad decisions. I don't agree with that premise. Well, not the educators. Not the educators. but states make budgetary decisions. And if those budgetary decisions also drive these regulations, then it's not that they're bad actors. It may just be that they have to make cuts, and Head Start is one of those cuts. This is a federal to local program. We are returning these decisions to the local programs. The local programs, not states, will make decisions about what the ratio is. The only caveat is they have to live within their state law, which means they can be no more lax than their state law.

11:0574 % of these are already state licensed and ergo live within their state law. We are turning the decisions to those local programs. If a local program likes its ratio, it can keep its ratio. If a local program likes its education, it can keep its education. If a local program likes its bureaucracy, it can keep its bureaucracy. We have about 30. Flexibility matters. I understand your point. I just want to note that several state head start associations say they think these caps will hit small independent operators hardest. They don't have the same economies of scale. How do you address that? What we're trying to do here is we're bringing the administrative expenses down in line with what other federal programs are.

11:45For example, the child care block grant is 5%. What we're trying to do is ensure more resources get to the end of the row and serve children and families like the program was intended. We're going to reverse the slide from both the Biden and the Obama administrations that eliminated opportunities for youth all across the country. We're going to cover more slots. We're going to cover more children, and we're going to provide more resources for children and families. Well, we are in the 60-day comment period for these proposed changes. That's open until October 6th. We'll share the website on our website, the1a.org.

12:17That's Assistant Secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, Alex Adams, ACF Overseas, Head Start at the federal level. Assistant Secretary, thanks for your time. Thank you. Coming up, Head Start has survived budget fights before, but program directors say this proposal feels different. We get to more after the break.

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13:36Stay caught up on the latest news with Trump's Terms, the podcast where we curate NPR's coverage of President Trump in short episodes focused on a single story. Follow Trump's Terms on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get back to the conversation with this message from you about your experiences with Head Start. It was formational for me. As a child going through Head Start with a single mom who was raising three kids, that was invaluable, not only for her, but also me. I felt like it was a great foundational start. I felt more confident going into school, having had pre-K enrichment programs like Head Start.

14:20It's really sad to see that this might be on the chopping block. Thanks for sharing that. We also heard from Brenda, who writes, I attended Head Start in Monroeville, Alabama from 1968 to 1969. My Head Start teacher is still living, and her name is Mrs. Malone, and I love her dearly. I grew up in a poor, segregated neighborhood in Monroe County, Alabama. I learned how to read and write in Head Start. I was also fed while in Head Start. Please don't cut Head Start. I wouldn't have the success that I have today without my foundation, Head Start. Mariah Ballingat joins us now. She covers early childhood for the Associated Press.

14:57Mariah, thanks for joining us. You were listening in to the conversation with the assistant secretary. What were your takeaways from what you heard there? Yeah, he definitely has a very different take on what's going on than many of the advocates I've spoken to. One thing he said, for example, was that the Biden administration cut slots. That's not exactly what happened. What did happen is that it got a lot more expensive to operate Head Starts. and the federal funding has not kept up. And so a lot of operators went to the federal government and said, we simply cannot actually serve this many kids any longer can we cut back the number.

15:35So that is one way that enrollment has gone down. You've also seen a massive expansion of pre-K programs that states have been running. So some children have been going there. And we are also seeing falling birth rates. So there's a number of reasons why enrollment has dropped. There was never a deliberate effort on the part of the Biden administration to cut slots. One of the things that they did do that the Trump administration has since reversed is that they mandated a pay hike for teachers. And that's because there were so many teachers leaving the early childhood workforce during the pandemic when wages for things like service jobs went up.

16:13So you were losing teachers with bachelor's degrees to Target, to Starbucks, to retailers. And so they saw a need to raise the pay in order to at least reach some parity with some elementary schools. That is still a major issue. And some Head Starts I've spoken to have had to cut slots because they really can't find instructors in the classroom. Well, the assistant secretary also said these proposed changes will allow for more flexibility at the local level. What are you hearing for those who work for Head Start? So I have not heard from an operator that is seeking more flexibility. There may be some out there.

16:57I'm sure there's some that really do feel that a lot of the paperwork is really burdensome. Certainly parents seem to be opposed to this. Advocates for Head Start seem to be opposed to this because the kind of flexibility, on one hand, it is flexibility. And he's right that programs do have the option to continue to operate as they are. But they're feeling tremendous financial pressure. And that, combined with the loosening of regulations, seems to be pushing them in a particular direction. Head Start was level-funded this year. And in this economy, a level funding is a cut. Anyone who didn't get a raise this year already knows that.

17:38Yeah, yeah. We heard from Tanya in Woodstock, Georgia. I went from being a five-year-old Head Start student to graduating from Georgia Tech and spending most of my adult life creating opportunities for children and advocating for their well-being. That journey is why I believe we should talk about Head Start not only in terms of budgets and programs, but in terms of real people and real outcomes. Behind every Head Start classroom is a child who has potential, a family trying to create a better future, and a community deciding whether it is willing to invest in that future. When we assess outcomes for students, what are researchers measuring when it comes to Head Start?

18:14Is it academic outcomes, social-emotional development, something else? It's a lot of things. I mean, Head Start was started as an anti-poverty initiative. In many ways, it was way ahead of its time. It recognized that things like vision, hearing, dental care, medical care, those things were all really important to a child's well-being and to a child's ability to learn. But the research has been admittedly very mixed. It's certainly not a slam dunk. I kind of look at the research in two tranches. There's the research that looks at short-term outcomes. So certainly when the kids are in Head Start, they are outperforming their peers in other kinds of early education programs.

18:54But those gains seem to fade in first by the time they reach first and second grade. There are some subgroups, though, for whom the gains persist. But there's also research that looks at even the very early cohorts of Head Start, the people who were four and five years old in 1965. And they do see that they have increased earnings. They were more likely to graduate high school, less likely to have contact with law enforcement. They had better health. There were a number of long-term outcomes that we're seeing. It's a very difficult program to study. The gold standard is the randomized controlled trial.

19:31They published a study in 2010 and then again in 2012. But even there, it was very messy. The control group, some of those kids actually ended up in Head Start anyway. It's a very popular program. And some of the Head Start kids ended up dropping out. So it's just a very difficult thing to study. But certainly it's not a slam dunk. We got this message from Jennifer in Indiana. I have had four of my children through the early Head Start program and then became a part-time staff. and I'm now a full-time staff and a member of management. I'm a home visitor coordinator. So what Head Start has meant to me is that they have supported me through all of life's obstacles.

20:13They have been my biggest cheerleader. The return on investment with our kiddos is astronomical compared to any other business in our state. And these changes that are being proposed are only going to affect the quality of services provided. and I think government needs to really consider what and who they are affecting because it's the families who are most vulnerable in our state that are being affected. Jennifer, thanks for that message. I want to focus on the families part of Head Start because we talk about children and the experience they may have in a Head Start program, but what kinds of additional services are provided for families to participate?

20:56Yeah, I think one thing that a lot of people don't understand about Head Start is that families and parents are not considered secondary. They are like primary beneficiaries of the program. So they have something called, they kind of coach parents. When they meet parents, they do a needs assessment, make sure that they have connections to health care, to dental providers, and things like that. And then they ask them, like, what is your goal? Do you have a goal? Let's like create a goal for you. It could be a financial goal. I talked to one Head Start coordinator who told me a family just wanted to go on a vacation.

21:26They'd never been on vacation. I talked to one mother in Alaska. Her goal was to finish building a home, like herself, with her own hands. And then they coached them through that goal. I've heard so many stories, like the one the caller just talked about, where people have actually gone to work for Head Start. And I think that's part of the reason it's so popular in many communities, Republican, Democratic, is that it's also a workforce development program. And they have encouraged many parents, many women even, to go back to school. I've even talked to high school dropouts who ended up getting their associate's degree and are now master teachers in Head Start.

22:07So as we said, these are proposed rules at this point. If they go through, what could it mean for the experience children have in different states? Because if the expectation is that with the current set of federal regulations, again, a child in Mississippi and a child in Michigan are going to have a Head Start experience. Could that change? Definitely. I mean, I think one of the first places, if any place we would see changes, is that Head Starts currently have pretty low staff-to-child ratios. And now states would be the defining—state regulations would be kind of the ceiling and the floor for that.

22:48So, for example, in Mississippi, a Head Start teacher would only watch something like two or four two-year-olds. That number would go up to 12. I don't think programs are necessarily going to take full advantage of that. But that is one of the ways that the regulations that the administration has proposed that they would get more seats is by putting more children into classrooms. So that is one place that people could immediately see changes if operators decide that they need to start putting more kids into classrooms. We got this question from John in Bethesda, who says, The assistant secretary said the federal government will increase the number of children serviced by Head Start.

23:31He neglected to comment on if the federal government will overall increase funding, which states can use as they see fit. His administration has a history of cutting funding. Any knowledge of how the government will fund the changes? Has the Trump administration said anything about increased funding for Head Start? I posed this question directly to the assistant secretary. He just said, well, we did level fund it this year, but certainly there is a lot of nervousness around this. Head Start advocates have really been on their heels since the start of the second Trump administration. Trump's budget chief, Russ Vogt, actually called for the elimination of Head Start before he started the position.

24:07There was an early budget draft last year that circulated that zeroed out Head Start. So certainly people are really nervous that this is just another step in undermining the program and eventually dismantling and eliminating it. There's also been tremendous layoffs. And they also, at one point, this was halted by a lawsuit, started limiting what kinds of words they could put in grant applications. So they weren't supposed to use the word woman or black or Hispanic, things like that. that have really kind of made things uneasy and uncertain for Head Start operators. And just put this in the broader context of what we've seen from the Trump administration, how it's changing education and social safety net programs.