John,

The Trump administration is proposing to wipe away more than 1,400 federal requirements governing Head Start, stripping back national standards that help ensure children and families receive high-quality services no matter where they live.

The proposed rule would eliminate the federal staff-child ratio and class size requirements and instead rely largely on state standards. It would remove federal limits on suspensions and the prohibition on expulsion. It would eliminate detailed requirements involving health and mental health services, weaken family engagement standards, and replace current support for bilingual learning with an English instruction requirement for most programs.

These changes could transform what families receive from Head Start. Civil rights, disability, child advocacy, and early education organizations warn that shifting away from strong national standards could create vastly different levels of service from one state to another and disproportionately harm children already facing barriers to opportunity.

The Department of Health and Human Services is accepting public comments right now. This is our opportunity to put strong opposition directly into the federal record.

Click here to submit a comment telling the Trump administration to withdraw this proposal and protect strong, comprehensive Head Start standards for every child.

Head Start works because it provides children and families with comprehensive early education, health, developmental, and family services backed by strong national standards. Eliminating more than 1,400 federal requirements risks weakening those protections and creating vastly different standards depending on where a child lives.

Thank you for taking action to defend strong national standards for all students and families.

-The CHN Action team

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John,

The Trump administration has opened a federal comment period on a sweeping proposal that would rewrite the rules governing Head Start. The proposal is called “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs” but it actually would dismantle the program by wiping away more than 1,400 existing federal requirements that help define the quality of Head Start services nationwide.¹

Under the rule, federal limits on class sizes and staff-child ratios would disappear, with programs instead allowed to follow generally weaker state and local standards. Federal limits on suspending children and the prohibition on expulsion would be removed. Current requirements supporting bilingualism would be replaced with a requirement that education be conducted in English.²

The administration would also eliminate specific federal requirements involving health determinations, monthly mental health consultation, help navigating health systems and other services that distinguish Head Start from ordinary child care. It would eliminate the option for some families to establish eligibility through self-attestation and remove the ability to account for excessive housing costs when determining eligibility. Even measures to prevent lead exposure in Head Start facilities would no longer be required.

These protections were developed because Head Start serves children facing some of the greatest barriers to opportunity. Now the Department of Health and Human Services is asking the public what it thinks before this rule becomes final. Every comment becomes part of the official rulemaking record, and we’re rallying allies from across the country to make clear that “flexibility” cannot become an excuse for stripping away the standards children and families depend on.

Submit a public comment today and tell the Trump administration to withdraw this proposal and protect strong Head Start standards nationwide.

For more than 60 years, Head Start has combined early education with health, nutrition, developmental, and family services because children do better when their needs are addressed together. More than 40 million children and families have been served since the program began.³ Those comprehensive services are part of what made Head Start a national model.

Civil rights and disability organizations are warning that dismantling these standards would hit children already facing inequities the hardest. Black children make up approximately 29% of Head Start participants, Latino children 40%, and children with disabilities 15%.⁴ Weakening a national standard also means the services available to a child could increasingly depend on the protections their state happens to provide.

The differences could be enormous. An analysis cited by the Associated Press found that roughly 80% of Head Start students could face worse staff-to-child ratios if programs moved from current federal standards to state minimums. Head Start should guarantee children in families with low incomes high-quality services whether they live in Mississippi, Arizona, Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts.

This proposal follows repeated disruptions and threats to Head Start, including funding delays, reductions in federal staff supporting the program, and an earlier proposal to eliminate Head Start funding entirely.⁵

Families and advocates pushed back before. We need that same pressure now to stop Head Start from being hollowed out regulation by regulation.

Submit your public comment now and demand that HHS withdraw this rule and preserve the strong national standards that have helped generations of children thrive.

Thank you for all you do,

The CHN Action team

¹ Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs
² AP: Trump administration moves forward with Head Start overhaul, proposing to eliminate regulations
³ CDF: Proposed Head Start Overhaul Will Threaten the Well-Being of Millions of America’s Children
⁴ Civil Rights and Disability Organizations’ Joint Statement in Opposition to Administration Efforts to Dismantle Head Start
⁵ NWLC: Trump Admin’s New Head Start Rule Would Advance Its Long-Term Goal of Eliminating Program