Extended Government Shutdown Puts 65,152 Head Start Children and Families at Risk

October 16, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Head Start Association (NHSA) is warning that the ongoing federal government shutdown threatens to disrupt services for tens of thousands of children and families who rely on Head Start, the nation’s early learning and family support program for low-income communities.

Due to the timing of federal grants, six Head Start programs serving 6,525 children are already operating without federal funding, drawing on emergency local resources to stay open. By November 1, 2025, another 134 programs across 41 states and Puerto Rico, serving 58,627 children, will face the same cliff unless Congress and the president act swiftly.

“For six decades, Head Start has helped millions of children and families build a foundation for success,” said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of NHSA. “That mission shouldn’t be collateral damage in Washington’s political stalemate. Every day this shutdown continues, programs are forced to make impossible choices just to keep their doors open. Children cannot wait.”

Head Start offers early education, health screenings, nutritious meals, and family support for children in poverty, those in foster care or experiencing homelessness, children with disabilities, and the children of farmworkers and American Indian and Alaska Native families. In many rural and frontier communities, Head Start is the only reliable early learning and child care program that affords parents the opportunity to work or attend school.

“Head Start isn’t just an education program — it’s a promise of stability,” Vinci said. “When parents go to work or school, they do so knowing their children are safe, learning, and cared for. That sense of stability is priceless, and it’s exactly what’s now at risk.”

The shutdown compounds existing financial strain on local Head Start programs. With flat federal funding since FY24, programs are already managing a five percent real cut due to inflation. Many are struggling to hire and retain teachers while costs for health insurance, transportation, utilities, and other operating items continue to rise.

NHSA is urging Congress and the president to end the shutdown immediately, restore October funding for Head Start programs, and pass an FY26 appropriations bill that includes a cost-of-living adjustment to sustain services.

“Head Start programs are showing extraordinary resilience — they’re opening their doors every morning, even without knowing when the next check will come,” Vinci said. “That commitment is heroic. But resilience alone can’t keep the lights on. Washington must act now.”