Federal shutdown causes potential loss of free child care for families

Out of 48 programs, nine Michigan Head Start grantees awaiting federal funds to keep running their programs on Nov. 1 risk closure if the shutdown continues and funds aren’t disbursed.
Program administrators worry about the outsized impact closures could have on low-income kids and families who rely on the program for free child care and other wraparound services.

Nine Michigan Head Start programs — and the nearly 3,000 kids they serve across the state — that were expecting to receive federal funds by Nov. 1 are at risk of losing these dollars if the federal government shutdown continues into next month, according to the executive director of the Michigan Head Start Association, Robin Bozek.

Head Start provides free child care and early education to kids living in poverty, while also serving as a coordinator of services, like health care and food access, to their families.

Some of the nine programs have said that they are finding ways to temporarily extend their programs through non-federal funding sources. Others say they don’t have that option and will be forced to close their doors after Nov. 1 if grants aren’t disbursed.

“The shutdown is pushing programs to a breaking point at a time when children and families can least afford it,” said Michelle LaJoie, executive director at the Alger-Marquette Community Action Board, which provides Head Start programming to 224 kids between birth and 4 years old, in addition to home visiting for pregnant moms.

LaJoie said the Alger-Marquette Community Action Board is using some of the small amount of funding it has to continue its Head Start program through Nov. 14 if needed, but after that it will have to close its doors, laying off the majority of its Head Start staff and stopping those services for kids and families.

The federal government shutdown started on Oct. 1 and will bring other programs that families and children rely on, like SNAP, to a halt come November. Head Start program directors say they worry Head Start closures will add yet another layer of stress, making life harder for kids and families, especially working parents who wouldn’t be able to afford child care otherwise.

Many of the working parents in her Head Start programs will be “forced to choose between earning a paycheck or having to stay home and take care of their children,” said LaJoie.

Molly Reil is a mother of three in Bessemer, located in the western part of the Upper Peninsula, whose 3-year-old just started in Head Start through the Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency.

The Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency is one of the nine impacted programs and the early childhood director said it will have to close its doors if the shutdown rolls past Nov. 1. In that case, Reil will lose her only option for child care and her son will have to bounce between different family members, losing the structured environment that she says has allowed him to learn and thrive, she said.

“He’s a completely different kid,” Reil said. “He’s so much more regulated, it’s done so much for him in such a short period of time.”

Reil works in child protective services and said she also worries about the added unnecessary stress program closures would put on many families she knows who are already struggling.

“It’s different for everyone,” Reil said. “There are some families where child care will be the issue, for others it’s the loss of routine and structure for kids to thrive, others can’t afford to have those kids at home and feed them during the day.”

“Working in child welfare, I fear that’s going to cause so many more issues in the family system that don’t need to be there. All those million stressors.”

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Some will close, others look for lifelines

Across the United States, Head Start programs have different grant timelines when they apply for and receive federal funds. In Michigan, nine of the 48 programs are Nov. 1 grantees and currently at risk of not receiving those funds on time given the federal government shutdown, said Bozek, with the Michigan Head Start Association.

The majority of the nine programs are in the Upper Peninsula. Bozek didn’t want to publicly name those nine when the Free Press spoke with her Oct. 24 because some program administrators may not have communicated their plans with all parents and staff yet.

Depending on where programs are based, they might be able to tap other funding sources to continue their programs in the event grants aren’t disbursed by Nov. 1. The Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, for example, is a Head Start program operating through an Intermediate School District.

In the potential absence of federal funds, the ISD has approved using district general funds to continue providing Head Start services to families past Nov. 1, said Rachel Roberts, the executive director for early childhood at the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, which currently serves 507 children and 103 staff members funded through the Head Start grant.

“Not a lot of other Head Starts have that ability,” said Roberts.

The Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency is not so fortunate, said Renee Pertile, early childhood director at the agency. Pertile’s Head Start program serves 85 children ages 3 to 5 and 30 families with pregnant mothers through age 3. They also serve around 25 kids with after-school programming.

“We’re one of the programs that is so small and so rural that we are not going to be able to find funding to stay open if we do not receive our grant by Nov. 1,” said Pertile who said her program doesn’t have access to options other programs might have in larger cities, like securing a line of credit or partnering with foundations or organizations willing to donate money to fill the gap.

Program administrators said they’re also concerned about how long it will take to get their funding once the shutdown ends, given strapped federal Head Start administration capacity. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ordered the federal Department of Health and Human Services to restructure the program, leading to the closure of five of 10 regional Head Start offices providing regular support to Head Start programs on the ground.

“The support is just not there,” said Pertile, who said she has been assigned three different Office of Head Start specialists in the past year, and hadn’t yet heard anything back about the grant application she submitted on Aug. 1, which is abnormal, she said.

Typically, programs go back and forth with specialists to hammer out grant details and questions in the months ahead of the disbursement date. Pertile said the uncertainty concerns her, since she doesn’t have confidence she’ll get funds promptly once the shutdown ends.

“Parents think once the government reopens, that’s great, it means programs start up again, but really it means the Office of Head Start will now be able to start looking at grants, processing them … we don’t know how long that’s gonna take,” she said.

Impact on families

Program administrators say that people who don’t use Head Start typically don’t understand everything it offers families and the resulting impact when lost. In addition to free, high quality child care and early education, it provides a variety of needed services to kids and families both in and out of care, they say.

Early intervention services for kids with developmental delays like autism, are built into the program, said Bozek.

“That can’t be put on hold just because of a government shutdown — it disrupts that intervention and that learning,” she said.

Meals — breakfast, lunch and a snack — are provided to kids four days a week in Head Start programs. (Head Start doesn’t operate on Fridays.) It is especially important given the rising cost of food, Pertile said.

“Head Start is a safe haven for a lot of kids, or it’s their lifeline” Reil said. “They might not get breakfast if they don’t walk through those doors. It’s not that their parents are bad people, we’re all just trying to survive.”

Roberts said Head Start also provides a bunch of different threads of support to parents.

“We have family advocates who sit alongside parents and help them fill out an application or provide them with a list of job openings,” she said.

They also provide families support in immediate crisis, such as a home burning down, and mental health counseling to families and kids.

LaJoie said Head Start is also required to connect families to dental and health care for kids who enter the program. She said she laments the possibility of these wraparound services being lost.

Beki San Martin is a fellow at the Detroit Free Press who covers child care, early childhood education and other issues that affect the lives of children ages 5 and under and their families in metro Detroit and across Michigan. Contact her at [email protected].

This fellowship is supported by the Bainum Family Foundation. The Free Press retains editorial control of this work.

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