On April 11th, families woke to the news that the Trump administration planned to completely eliminate the Head Start program as part of its forthcoming budget proposal to congress.1 Across the country, Head Start Programs, families, and entire communities worked diligently to uplift the value of the program and advocate to protect it. Weeks later, the Trump administration’s budget proposal to congress did not include the elimination of Head Start – an important win for families and advocates. Attempts to dismantle Head Start are not expected to cease, and perhaps equally important, they are not new or sporadic. Attacks on the Head Start Program, which includes Early Head Start and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start, are part of a decades-long sustained strategy to undermine progress for families with low incomes and reduce critical supports for entire communities.

The following timeline details the deliberate and sustained attacks on the Head Start Program in the first four months of the second Trump administration, which have led to instability, lack of access to funding, and even some programs temporarily closing their doors.2 These attacks can be traced directly to plans put forth by the Heritage Foundation in the conservative Playbook Project 2025, which proposed to fully eliminate the Head Start Program.3

Head Start began in 1965 as an anti-poverty program as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty efforts. Head Start programs have served millions of children and families for 60 years, including almost 800,000 in the last year alone4 through critical services like early childhood education, services during pregnancy, indoor and outdoor physical activity, social and emotional support, nutrition education along with meals and snacks, mental health services, health and dental screenings, financial literary classes, family engagement opportunities, help finding child care, or employment, transportation services, and providing a career path for many parents who become Head Start staff.

Timeline of Targeted Attacks on Head Start in 2025

January – FEDERAL FUNDING FREEZE

On Monday, January 2th, a memo from the White House Office for Management and Budget (OMB) paused congressionally approved funding for a wide range of programs, including Head Start.5 Lawsuits challenging the memo were immediately filed, and on January 28th, a U.S. district court blocked the freeze through an administrative stay. On January 29th, the Trump administration rescinded the memo. Yet, in the days the freeze was officially in effect and the weeks and months that followed, Head Start programs across the country faced challenges accessing their payment, with some programs closing temporarily, leaving families with unstable and unpredictable access to child care and other critical services.6

February – ACF FIRINGS BEGIN

In mid-February, approximately 70 people working at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) were fired. These personnel losses equaled almost 20 percent of the Office of Head Start (OHS) staff and 25 percent of the Office of Child Care staff (OCC), leaving Head Start grantees without access to resources and information, made worse by the continued instability of funding access and other threats to Head Start.

March – HEAD START GRANTEES INSTRUCTED TO REMOVE DEI INITIATIVES

On March 21, ACF sent a letter to Head Start program recipients, amplifying President Trump’s executive order on removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.7 Head Start grantees across the country received warnings that their programs would not be funded if they “promote or take part in” DEI initiatives, and included a new requirement to certify that DEI practices are not being implemented in other to receive funding.8  These new requirements did not include a definition of a “DEI initiative,” and lack of guidance paired with the loss of OHS staff have left grantees without clear understanding of how to best meet the needs of children in their care without losing their funding.9

April – ACF FIRINGS CONTINUE, HEAD START REGIONAL OFFICE CLOSURES

In early April, additional ACF firings led to the loss of almost 50 percent of staff of the Office of Child Care, with almost the same amount of staff lost at the Office of Head Start. Additionally, all staff in five regional OCC and OHS offices were terminated (Region 1, located in Boston; Region 2, located in New York; Region 5, located in Chicago; Region 9, located in San Francisco; and Region 10, located in Seattle). The closed regional offices served 22 states, 6 territories, and 467 Tribal governments, leaving them without access to resources or support to navigate lack of access to funding.10 Without OCC or OHS staff to turn to, some programs were forced to close temporarily.11 Importantly, regional staff serve as primary points of contact for Head Start and state and local tribal agencies. Normally, regional staff would seek clarity on the administration’s arbitrary and ambiguous new rules and advise providers on how best to continue their work ensuring children receive child care, health care, and nutritional services. Their absence is creating chaos for providers, who do not know whether providing dual-language learning services, for example, will be punishable under the new rules.12

TRUMP BUDGET PROPOSES ELIMINATING HEAD START

Each year, the President submits a budget proposal to Congress detailing what they would like to see in the next year’s congressional funding process. Ahead of this, on April 11th, a leaked budget proposal detailed President Trump’s intent to eliminate the Head Start program entirely.13 Eliminating Head Start is an idea that can be found on page 482 of Project 2025.

May – TRUMP BUDGET DOES NOT LIST ELIMINATING HEAD START; PROPOSES ELIMINATING OTHE EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS

When President Trump submitted his “skinny” budget proposal to Congress for FY26, it did not include the elimination of the Head Start program, instead, it was silent on the program.14 However, it did include the elimination of two other important early childhood programs: Preschool Development Grants (PDG B-5) and the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) program.15 16

 

In April, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit17 with a coalition of parent advocacy groups and State Head Start Associations challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful efforts to dismantle the Head Start program, stating that by slashing staff, delaying funding, and imposing bans that block programs from fulfilling their mission to support young children from low-income families, the administration is defying Congress’s mandate to continue Head Start services nationwide.18This lawsuit will be critical in determining what the Trump Administration can require programs to do to receive funding, particularly in light of HHS Secretary Kennedy’s Congressional testimony on May 14th stating that Head Start funding will preserved but that “in exchange, Head Start needs to be consistent with Administration priorities.“19

Despite Head Start’s proven record of success, conservative think tanks and leaders have been attempting to discredit and eliminate the program for decades.20 The first few months of the Trump Administration’s efforts show a clear and deliberate plan to consistently attack Head Start through any available means. Attacks on Head Start threaten the availability of child care and early learning programs, particularly for rural communities21; reduce employment and support for entire communities that are employed or partner with Head Start grantees; and seek to dismantle efforts to lift families out of poverty. These efforts are also a direct attack on democracy, as the Trump administration pursues illegal efforts circumventing Congressional authority and imposing requirements outside of and directly conflicting with Head Start statute.22