Statement From the National Head Start Association on Child Care Funding Freeze

January 9, 2026

Note: After this statement was posted, a federal judge ruled that the five states had met a legal threshold “to protect the status quo” for at least 14 days while arguments on the funding freeze are made in court.

The National Head Start Association is deeply concerned about the federal government’s decision to freeze human services funding, including the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), in five states. While we share the commitment to ensuring every federal dollar is used appropriately, we are troubled by the potential impact on working families and young children and on child care providers who depend on these critical resources.

CCDF funds make it possible for hundreds of thousands of families – in every state and Congressional district – to afford the safe, reliable care their children need while parents work or go to school. Without this funding, child care becomes unaffordable and out of reach, causing financial strain and instability for families, who are trying to do everything right to provide for their children.

While Head Start funds are not frozen by this decision, the freezing of child care services deeply disrupts several local models of Head Start services, such as the Early Head Start Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP), a substantial strain on an already under-resourced market.

The Head Start community strongly believes that fraud is unacceptable and accountability is essential in all human service programs. Due to its federal to local structure, Head Start is held to extremely high standards (both program and fiscal). These standards include detailed reporting requirements, exhaustive systems that track enrollment and attendance, and annual audits that are consistently required nationwide. Head Start grant recipients who are found deficient face potential loss of their grant through the Designation Renewal System, established by Congress to ensure accountability, as well as additional penalties for fraud or abuse of resources. This system demonstrated that rigorous oversight and continuity of services can coexist effectively.  

However, broad freezes of child care funds risk harming the very families and children these programs were designed to serve. Parents should not lose access to care that allows them to work because of administrative challenges. Hardworking families cannot afford to be caught in the middle of a bureaucratic morass, and their children need continuity of care. We urge the federal government to work directly with states to end this freeze and to ensure funding continues to reach eligible children and hard-working families while addressing accountability concerns.