“I’m terrified, I’ve been trying to hope that there would be a dramatic change,”
- Ashleigh, Washington State mom of three, including two Head Start graduates and a third child enrolled in Head Start

While moms like Ashleigh face losing access to Head Start childcare – and the occupational, speech, and physical therapy their children rely on but would never be able to afford without this critical program – so they can go to work, President Trump put in gold bathroom fixtures and poured champagne at his Great Gatsby themed party alongside his billionaire buddies. All of this as the government shutdown continues to drag on, threatening access to food, health care and child care for millions of families and children across the nation.

This administration and Republicans in Congress continue demonstrating their utter disregard for our children and families as they continue to hold our government hostage, creating utter chaos and catastrophe for children and families. Just this week more than 8,000 children in 15 states and Puerto Rico lost access to Head Start, [1] and 143 Head Start programs serving 58,627 children across 41 states are facing looming closures. [2]

Dozens of Head Start centers are now missing out on federal grant payments that were due to arrive November 1st and centers around the country are beginning to cease operations, [3] with some closed indefinitely, while others are staying afloat with emergency funding from local governments and school districts. [4] The closures mean Head Start students — who come from low-income households, are homeless or are in foster care — are missing out on preschool, where they are fed two meals a day and receive therapy vital to their development. [5] On Monday four Massachusetts Head Start centers serving 550 children closed and 150 staff members were furloughed. [6] Every Head Start center in Little Rock, Arkansas has closed, as well as several rural programs in Ohio, Iowa and Florida. [7] More than 1,100 children in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Oklahoma have been shut out of centers that also saw the furlough of 900 staff members. [8]

Parents are having to miss working at much-needed jobs because they don’t have childcare – and kids are losing out on learning.

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of these closures is the jarring disruption to care that the littlest learners are having to experience. Continuity of care is a crucial part of healthy child development and these needless disruptions harm not only consistent access to child care, they hurt family stability and economic security, and cut off access to nutritious meals, physical and mental health checkups, and other vital support that Head Start provides. In many rural and frontier communities, Head Start is also the only reliable early learning and child care program available to families. [9]

Head Start has experienced decades of a bipartisan commitment to our nation's children with this year marking the 60th anniversary of a program that is the most important social and educational investment in children, families, and communities the United States has ever undertaken. Yet today, parents are left scrambling to figure out how to go to work as their child care is taken away – and children are facing learning loss due to the prioritization of politics and billionaires over families. Holding hostage critical programs families rely on for food, health care and child care while billionaires live it up is beyond unconscionable. Families need Head Start and families need health care! What they don’t need is an ongoing shutdown that locks families and kids out of the most fundamental necessities.

Together we are raising our voices and together we are being heard. We will continue to speak up and fight for what is right for children and families!

- Nadia, Lauren, Nina, Hanna, Donna, Kristin, and the whole MomsRising.org & MamásConPoder Team

P.S. Has your access to Head Start been impacted by the shut down? Are you a provider whose program has been effected by the shut down? Share your Head Start Shutdown story now.

Join our Spanish language community, MamásConPoder.org

What should MomsRising tackle next? Tell us!