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This week, nearly 65,000 children from low-income families across the United States are losing access to early childhood education, meals, and family support. The government shutdown – now the longest on record – is triggering a wave of closures of Head Start centers. These are part of a federal program that provides child care and early education to over 715,000 children up to age 5 from low-income families. As of Thursday, 20 Head Start centers in 17 states and Puerto Rico have closed their doors indefinitely after Congress failed to reach a funding deal, according to the National Head Start Association. One of those centers was in Brockton, Massachusetts. An estimated 550 children lost access to school and meals, and over 150 child care workers were furloughed. As Republicans and Democrats trade blame for the shutdown, more closures are expected to follow. “We’re able to keep our doors open, but we’re not sure for how much longer,” says Kristine Silva, assistant director of PACE Head Start in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Last week, PACE parents watched yellow school buses make their final preschool runs, as transportation became the program’s first loss. “It’s like kicking out one leg of the stool that keeps the child care system standing,” says Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, an economics professor at Georgetown University who studies the effects of federal anti-poverty programs for children and families. “We’ve never seen anything like this. Without it, more families are going to face hardships.” She notes that the 60-year-old federal program was among the first major federal investments in preschool for low-income children. Much of today’s early childhood education system has grown around it. But because Head Start relies almost entirely on federal funding, it has little cushion against political or budgetary disruptions. The potential loss of services is deeply personal for parents like Donna Doyon, whose youngest son is in Head Start in New Bedford. She says the program has been a lifeline, offering the 4-year-old a place to learn while allowing her to continue working part time as a grocery store cashier. “It hurts my heart,” she says. “It’s going to affect the children and families’ ability to work. How do you tell a 3- or 4-year-old they can’t go to school because their school is shutting down?” The upheaval comes during a year when women, especially mothers, have been losing ground in the workforce. An estimated 212,000 women had left their jobs by August 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Meanwhile, 44,000 men entered the workforce.) Many cite return-to-office mandates and a reversal of pandemic-era flexibility that had allowed more mothers to earn income. The percentage of working women with a child under age 5 in the labor force dropped by almost 3 percentage points between January and June, from 69.7% to 66.9%, according to research from Misty Lee Heggeness, an associate professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Kansas. For decades, Head Start enjoyed broad bipartisan support, given the number of studies that show that children who attend preschool are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college and less likely to be suspended and get tangled up in the legal system. “If the government shutdown continues for an extended period of time, all of our programs are going to face closures,” says Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, noting that 80% of Head Start funding comes from the federal government. While the closures are due to the government shutdown, they arrive in a year of actions by President Donald Trump’s administration to restructure the federal agency, and shift education and child care responsibilities more toward states. Budget threats, funding freezes, closure of regional offices, and now funding delays have left many centers operating in what Ms. Haimowitz calls a state of “consistent inconsistency.” What is Head Start? The program provides more than just early childhood education. Launched in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, the program offers a range of services, such as access to medical and dental screenings, meals, and child care. With 17,000 centers nationwide, Head Start operates in almost every community in the U.S. Experts say in many parts of the country, especially rural areas, Head Start might be the only early childhood center. Several rural programs in Ohio, Iowa, and Florida closed Monday. It’s also a critical economic support. In Chicago, where affordable child care options are limited, many working families rely on Head Start. More than half (55%) of the city’s Head Start parents were working, going to school, or attending job training, according to a study published in May by Northwestern University. Local organizations – like community centers, family agencies, and elementary schools – receive federal funds on a rolling basis throughout the year to operate Head Start and Early Head Start programs. The Nov. 1 deadline lapsed, putting nearly 10% of all programs, serving roughly 65,000 children, at risk of losing access to their classrooms, according to the National Head Start Association. Over 22,000 staff members at these centers are also at risk of being furloughed or losing their jobs. Some centers that have missed out on grant payments have managed to remain open, with philanthropies, school districts, and local governments filling in gaps. Others are relying on fast-dwindling reserves and warn they can’t keep their doors open for much longer. This comes during a year of actions targeting the program. In April, the Trump administration asked Congress to eliminate Head Start’s entire $12.27 billion budget. Soon after, five of Head Start’s 10 regional offices were abruptly closed, with all staff laid off as a result of DOGE cuts, sparking bipartisan backlash. The following month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to reassure lawmakers, telling Congress that his agency would “preserve” Head Start and “ensure the program continues to serve its 750,000 children and parents effectively.” “It’s hard to overstate the impact of the closure of the regional offices,” says Katie Hamm, visiting professor at Erikson Institute and former early childhood policy leader at the Administration for Children and Families under the Biden administration. They were the connection between the federal government and local communities, she says. Due to the sudden manner in which regional offices were closed, there was no opportunity to transition localized knowledge to someone new. “That was all erased,” says Ms. Hamm. As the shutdown continues, she has been in touch with more Head Start centers that have proactively started closing their doors, “because they can’t get in touch with anybody” in a regional office. “It’s led to an atmosphere of chaos in an office that was once one of the exemplars in the federal government,” she adds. What happens next? The next round of funding is set for Dec. 1. Experts say the long-term impact of the shutdown will depend on when that funding actually resumes. The longer the delays, the harder it is for shuttering centers to ever reopen their doors. “The goal is to ... get things open as quickly as possible. Everybody wants services and children not to be impacted,” says Ms. Haimowitz. Whenever the shutdown ends, Head Start centers still could face weeks of delays before receiving funding. Those eligible for Head Start programs are families who already rely on public supplement programs like SNAP (food stamps) or HEAP (home heating), which also have experienced disruptions or delays. The combined effect means “these families are getting hit with an onslaught,” says Dr. Whitmore Schanzenbach. “If this shutdown continues, we could see a lapse in our funding, putting our classrooms at risk of closing,” says Ms. Silva at PACE Head Start, which serves 195 families and has a staff of 63. PACE (People Acting in Community Endeavors) offers fuel assistance and family services, runs a food pantry, and receives federal grants for its Head Start preschool. For parents like Ms. Doyon and her husband, the shutdown means sacrifice. Their younger son attends preschool through PACE Head Start because they couldn’t afford to pay for preschool. She also receives the fuel assistance supplement and frequents the food pantry to stretch their budget. If PACE Head Start shutters, Ms. Doyon says she will have to work fewer shifts at the grocery store, and her truck-driving husband will need to take more. That way, she can care for their son at home. “I do everything I can for my kids; that’s why I’m a full-time mom. But I’m not able to teach them what they’ll learn at a preschool,” says Ms. Doyon. “They need a real teacher.”
