More than 25,000 children in Oregon and Washington will lose the child care and early education their families rely on if the Trump administration continues its attempts to dismantle Head Start, say northwest nonprofit organizations that signed onto a lawsuit against the administration.
For the past 60 years, the federal Head Start program has provided child care and early learning opportunities to low-income children, many of whom are from non-white families or speak languages other than English.
But since President Donald Trump returned to office, the U.S. Department of Health Human Services has informed Head Start agencies they can’t use any federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and abruptly closed half of its regional offices, including the Seattle office that supported programs in Washington and Oregon.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press obtained a memo from the federal Office of Management and Budget calling for eliminating the Head Start program, as well as programs for teen pregnancy and Lyme disease.
All of that led Family Forward Oregon and the Washington State Association of Head Start and Early Childhood Assistance and Education Program to join Head Start associations from Illinois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and a parents group from Oakland, California, in suing the Health and Human Services Department, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other federal officials to prevent cuts.
“Over the last three months, Donald Trump has put a bullseye on the backs of 3- and 4-year-olds,” Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington program, said during a Tuesday press call. “He’s done everything to disrupt, dismantle and eventually paralyze the Head Start program.”
In Washington, that included a Head Start agency shutting down temporarily earlier this month when it didn’t receive federal funding, depriving more than 400 families of child care and 70 workers of their jobs. That child care center in Sunnyside eventually reopened.
More than 14,300 Washington children and more than 12,000 Oregon children receive services through Head Start.
Candice Vickers, the executive director of Family Forward Oregon, is a Head Start alumna. Her nonprofit organization, with members including mothers, caregivers and child care providers, advocates for child care at the state Legislature and with the federal government.
In recent months, Vickers said she has heard from a single mom of three in Portland who expects to lose her job if she loses access to Head Start because she can’t afford child care on her own. From families in Corvallis who learned last week that their Early Head Start program, which serves infants, was shut down with no reopen date. And from a mother in rural Oregon who credited Head Start for helping her recover from addiction and teaching her daughter to love reading.
“Head Start is more than just a preschool program,” Vickers said. “It’s a lifeline for working parents. It provides kids with the tools they need to succeed in school. It offers meals, dental care, mental health support and resources for these important parents.”
Oregon already has a severe child care shortage: A report prepared for the state’s Early Learning Division in 2023 found that nearly all counties are child care deserts, with one slot for every three children who need care. Without access to regulated child care, parents may have to give up work or rely on an unstable patchwork of caregivers, and businesses have a harder time recruiting employees.
Losing Head Start would have ripple effects through the rest of the economy, Vickers said.
“Once you’re fired from your job for not having access to childcare, you’re not going to get that job back,” she said. “These things that are happening won’t be able to be fixed by changing our mind tomorrow.”
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said cuts to Head Start threaten years of progress toward making child care more available and affordable to families. Murray, who chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee when Democrats last controlled the chamber, negotiated an additional $1 billion for child care and early education as part of a $1.2 trillion spending package last year. That included a $275 million increase for Head Start.
“A couple of billionaires with no idea about what they are doing came along and decided to take an ax to Head Start,” Murray said. “Talk about clueless. Talk about careless. Instead of giving our kids a head start, Trump and Musk want to give billionaires another tax break and give families the cold shoulder.”
This article was first published by Oregon Capital Chronicle, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.
