Head Start preschools serving thousands of children around the country could be at risk of closing because they remain locked out of their federal funding, a problem that first surfaced last week during President Donald Trump’s aborted effort to freeze federal grants.
Administrators around the country last week discovered they were locked out of a government website used to access grant funding for Head Start, an early education program that serves some of the nation’s neediest families and children. Medicaid administrators reported similar problems.
The website went back online for many operators. But a week later, 45 Head Start grant recipients across the country reported problems accessing their funding, says Tommy Sheridan of the National Head Start Association. Some were still waiting for invoices to be paid a week after submitting them—a process that normally takes four to five hours, he says.
The delays can be catastrophic for Head Start operations, many of which are fully funded by federal money that is doled out on a weekly or biweekly basis. In the wake of the federal funding pause last week, a Michigan nonprofit that runs 17 Head Start schools had to close its doors for a day because it could not pay its employees. It reopened once the money was released.
