Head Start programs serving tens of thousands of students nationwide are facing an uncertain future as the federal government indefinitely stalls the competition process for programs seeking new assurances of long-term funding.
Each of the nation’s 1,600 Head Start providers operates on a staggered, five-year federal grant. Providers close to their grant’s end date that fall short on various performance metrics typically have to apply for a new five-year grant rather than have their existing award renewed. That kicks off a process in which prospective providers nearby can compete with the established grantee for the Head Start designation in that community.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services usually runs that grant competition in the fall, leaving many months before the programs’ expiration date the following summer. But the competition providers expected last fall still hasn’t materialized.
As a result, according to a federally maintained list obtained by Education Week, at least 85 Head Start providers serving more than 39,000 children across 38 states are currently in limbo, using a temporary supply of federal funds with no assurance that the typical process for a full funding refresh will get back on track—or that temporary funding will remain in place while they await grant competitions.
One of those providers—the Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency in Pontiac, Mich.—notified community partners this summer that it no longer planned to use their spaces to host Head Start activities, said Janice Smith, who oversees the program.
Then, by the time HHS supplied programs awaiting competitions with an interim funding extension of six months, other organizations had already reserved those spaces, or the landlords wanted lease commitments of at least two years—time Smith cannot promise.
“I’ve been here for more than 25 years, and this is absolutely the most challenging time I’ve ever experienced in Head Start,” said Smith, the director of early-childhood services for the Oakland Livingston agency, which runs the local Head Start chapter serving 800 students.
Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, the executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association, this summer helped form a “support group” of eight programs in the state awaiting competitions. Some grantees whose funds were set to run out on July 30 didn’t hear anything about a short-term extension until mid-June, despite repeated attempts to contact HHS staff, Morrison-Frichtl said.
She and other state advocates say HHS has assured them providers will get enough funding to carry them through the current school year.
Still, some worry that the second Trump administration is stalling their typical funding timeline so it can quickly implement the sweeping regulatory overhaul it’s currently proposing for the broader Head Start program and have that in place before it kicks off new grant competitions. The absence of new competitions will soon begin to affect more providers with grants set to expire next year.
“There’s no way that they can release that [Notice of Funding Opportunity], have grantees apply, panel those and read them, select their top grantee awardee, and then have everything done by the end of this year,” Morrison-Frichtl said. “There’s just not enough time in the process to do that.”
HHS didn’t respond to requests for comment in time for publication. In proposing to scale back Head Start regulations, the agency has said its aim is to reduce the federal “bureaucratic burden” on programs and entrust parents and local communities with more control.
Competitions typically give providers opportunities to improve
No Head Start provider enjoys finding out they’ll have to compete to continue their grant. But it does present an opportunity for affected programs to make significant structural upgrades that otherwise may not be easily accomplished, Smith said.
For Smith, that meant an opportunity to find a “home” space for the program, rather than rent rooms from other local organizations, and propose wage bumps for staff.
“It’s a tough thing for staff to hear that your program is in competition status, so anything that you can do to put that silver lining on it and help better your program is helpful,” she said.
But after months of drafting a new grant application, ensuring any deficiencies were addressed and that the program was ready to continue—in what Smith believed would be a better way for the community and children she serves—the federal government notified the program the competition process was delayed.
I've been here for more than 25 years, and this is absolutely the most challenging time I've ever experienced in Head Start.
Smith’s program has twice applied for and received six-month funding extensions from the federal government since its funding initially was set to expire at the end of 2025, which has kept the program afloat, though on shaky and uncertain ground.
Those interim grants also require the program to continue operating as-is, without the updates Smith and her team had planned for and anticipated implementing this academic year.
Ultimately, Smith’s program found a home for this fall. But, still, the program’s temporary funding is set to expire Dec. 31—the middle of the school year—in the absence of additional extensions or a resolution to the competition process.
“It’s stressful not only for our staff but for our families who are placing their child in our program and want to know we’re not going to abruptly end in the middle of the year,” Smith said. Still, she remains confident the new grant will ultimately be approved.
Programs in limbo aren’t all delinquent
The requirement for Head Start providers to recompete doesn’t just hit programs with egregious violations.
A university-based program in Illinois ended up needing to seek a new grant because its application last year listed the program’s grant award amount $1 higher than the funding maximum HHS had previously allotted for the program.
“This grantee submitted a beautiful funding application, and the university, when they submitted it, it rounded up to a dollar over, and that kicked them back” to competition status, Morrison-Frichtl said. “That’s just silliness. But that’s how the system works.”
The Two Rivers Head Start Agency in Aurora, Ill., ended up in competition status after a fiscal officer and one teacher made some errors, said Kelly Neidel, the agency’s executive director.
To prepare, Neidel hired a grant writer and invested in a community needs assessment. Now, she thinks those investments of time and money may have gone to waste.
In the past, Neidel’s assigned program manager in Chicago’s regional Head Start office would have kept her abreast of changes to procedures and timelines. But the Trump administration closed that office in spring 2025, and replaced its staff with contractors who, according to Neidel, admit they aren’t familiar with Head Start’s complex regulations.
“When I was thinking I was going to be able to write a grant, I contacted a laid-off staff member and I paid them for their assistance, because I couldn’t go to the program specialist [HHS] assigned,” Neidel said.
Trump administration has repeatedly undermined Head Start
Congress annually allocates more than $12 billion a year for Head Start. While annual funding has lagged inflation in recent years, the program has enjoyed bipartisan support since its inception in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.
But since taking office in January 2025, the second Trump administration has repeatedly disrupted typical Head Start operations, at times skirting the law in the process.
I’ve never ever, in all the stuff Head Start’s been through, I have never been worried. And this year I am worried.
During the early months of 2025, the administration delayed and disrupted routine funding disbursements, causing some providers to temporarily close and prompting a rebuke from the Government Accountability Office, an independent federal watchdog.
Two abruptly announced federal policy changes—new review processes to crack down on providers’ diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and a plan to block undocumented immigrants from enrolling—drew preliminary injunctions from federal judges.
And, as part of broader governmentwide staffing cuts implemented by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, HHS abruptly shut down five of the 10 regional Head Start offices, leaving providers in 22 states with no point of contact for questions and concerns about their federal grant or compliance with federal rules. All five of the shuttered offices were in Democrat-led states.
More recently, HHS has advanced a major overhaul of the regulations governing Head Start, which providers and advocates say will fundamentally hinder the program’s ability to serve students and follow the law. The proposed changes would strip away mandates for low-student-teacher ratios, family support services, and comprehensive health screenings.
Now, the agency’s failure to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity for Head Start has led providers to experience a bewildering cascade of complications, including multiple requests for new budget drafts, conflicting guidance on grant timelines, and the eventual arrival of a short-term funding extension set to expire Dec. 31.
“Programs have to operate based on what they have in writing and the funding that they’ve been awarded,” said Katie Hamm, who oversaw the HHS office that includes Head Start from 2021 to 2025, under President Joe Biden. “Even if they know they are in all likelihood going to get funded, they can’t enter into a legally binding contract if they don’t have it in writing.”
That’s not to mention the mounting difficulties providers experience in retaining current employees and hiring new ones.
Neidel’s programs regularly fail to attract even one applicant when they post job opportunities, Neidel said. One of her centers has lost seven teachers this year alone.
“If people are listening to this in the news, why would they apply for a Head Start job?” Neidel said. “It does make it sound like it’s not definite.”
Head Start advocates continue to feel existential fear
Head Start providers got an existential scare in April 2025 when USA Today published a leaked federal budget proposal draft that eliminated annual funding for Head Start.
But the administration’s subsequent budget proposals have maintained Head Start, Congress supplied level funding for the program for this fiscal year, and House Republicans recently advanced a budget bill that includes a tiny increase.
Even so, this month’s announcement of a regulations overhaul was met with immediate backlash from advocates of the federal program who fear the administration is working to unravel the program without securing Congress’ approval.
The jumbled competition process is an example of an administrative burden Head Start needs to resolve through regulation changes, said Chanda Hillman, the executive director of the Michigan Head Start Association, which oversees Smith’s program.
“Where the notice of proposed rulemaking is reducing the majority of the quality standards, something like this process is where programs would really benefit from some administrative reduction, not in taking away toothbrushing or making programs do instruction in all English,” Hillman said.
All the while, maintaining services for students amid the turmoil is becoming increasingly untenable, providers say.
Neidel has watched the cost of health insurance soar to $400 a month per staff member. But federal funding hasn’t made up the difference, and the stalled grant process has further tightened the margins.
“I’ve never ever, in all the stuff Head Start’s been through, I have never been worried,” Neidel said. “And this year, I am worried.”
