STAFFING CUTS AT DHHS THREATEN EARLY LEARNING ACCESS FOR 20,000 KIDS IN WA
Children’s Alliance urges the United States Department of Health and Human Services to immediately restore regional support for Head Start programs to Region 10, which serves four states including Washington. The sweeping staff cuts at the Department will disproportionately harm children who are furthest from opportunity.
On April 1, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) abruptly terminated thousands of civil servants who dedicated their careers to improving health and well-being in the United States. The Administration of Children and Families (ACF) effectively closed half of its Head Start regional offices overnight, including the Seattle office that serves Region 10 (Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Alaska). As a result, the program staff in these states immediately lost their federal points of contact, along with institutional memory of the nuances of state policy that were embedded in longstanding working relationships. Affected states were given no advance notice to transition contacts or conclude projects. As of today, all Region 10 states are still without a point of contact.
Head Start has been serving American communities for 60 years, and it specializes in an evidence-based approach that prioritizes both family and child well-being to help children who are otherwise furthest from opportunity access the early learning resources they need to enter kindergarten ready to learn. Head Start sets income eligibility thresholds at 130% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), which is $34,645 for a family of three. Children may also be eligible if they are experiencing homelessness or foster care, are eligible for developmental support, or if their families are recipients of government programs including food benefits, cash assistance, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Head Start and Early Head Start currently serve 20,000 children in Washington. For context, our state-funded public preschool program (ECEAP) serves about 17,000 children.
The decision to arbitrarily slash program staff undermines critical services and has devastating consequences; children and families who rely on federal programming, along with the staff who administer them, are left with urgent questions about immediate impacts to their programs. There is not a contingency plan in place to ensure continuity of services and support, and that creates a very real and imminent risk of programs no longer being able to serve children in their communities. The Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP notes that 1/3 of grantees have grant renewals required in the next three months.
As we said just last week in our statement about the decision to dismantle the Department of Education, Head Start funding is not optional. DHHS is mandated to provide Congressionally funded dollars for legislatively required programs. Abruptly cutting staff, particularly without thoughtful input about each individual role’s responsibilities and unique contributions, will make it functionally impossible for DHHS to responsively serve American communities.
We strongly urge DHHS to immediately reinstate staff at regional Head Start offices.