Head Start Applauds Congressional Champions for Robust FY22 Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Head Start Association (NHSA) today applauded the 205 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who reaffirmed their commitment to America’s at-risk children and families by urging robust funding for Head Start and Early Head Start in fiscal year 2022 (FY22). Both Republicans and Democrats signed onto letters, one led by Reps. Katherine Clark (D-MA), Lauren Underwood (D-IL), and Joseph Morelle (D-NY) and the other led by Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH-15) to House leadership.

The requested $12.1 billion in FY22 funding in the letter led by Rep. Clark includes a cost-of-living adjustment for the Head Start and Early Head Start workforce and provides quality improvement funds to build on previous investments to promote healing from the trauma that has been compounded this past year.

“The Head Start community, nearly one million children and their families and 270,000 staff, thanks Representatives Clark, Morelle, Stivers, and Underwood as well as their congressional colleagues for their commitment to our nation’s most at-risk children and families,” NHSA Executive Director Yasmina Vinci said. “Head Start has stood with families through the pandemic and now as we begin to recover and as many look to increase national investments in proven early childhood programs, Head Start—with its whole-child, whole-family approach—should be front and center. With the quality improvement funding that our congressional champions have proposed, Head Start will be both better equipped to maintain a quality workforce and address the effects of adverse childhood experiences. We urge Congress to keep Head Start’s children, families, and staff in mind as the FY22 appropriations process continues.”