Spokane, Washington State childcare leaders sound alarms following cuts to federal preschool program

Child care providers are warning of dire implications for Spokane residents as the Head Start program is the latest to be caught up in federal cuts.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration shuttered the doors to the Health and Human Services Region 10 office in Seattle, which serves and oversees agency operations in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Located within it was the regional hub for the Office of Head Start, a federal early childhood education program serving low-income children and their families since its inception in 1965. The office’s six staff members learned they were laid off when they arrived for work Tuesday and couldn’t get in and had to be escorted by security to retrieve their personal belongings, said Joel Ryan, director of the Washington State Association of Head Start.

Four other regional offices were closed earlier this week as the agency goes through intensive restructuring. About 10,000 full-time employees will be laid off, according to a news release from the agency.

Most of the Head Start services in Spokane County are provided by Spokane Colleges, which serves an average of 20,000 students a year at Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College.

Chancellor Kevin Brockbank told a room of reporters Thursday that the cuts already made, and those likely coming down the pipeline, could have drastic consequences for Inland Northwest residents.

“It is incredibly impactful to the children and also the families, and also, frankly, the workforce here,” Brockbank said of the program. “This is how we build people into people who reinvest in our community. The idea that that program is currently being consolidated and is potentially under scrutiny for long- term viability and worth is really concerning to us.”

Spokane Colleges receives 80% of its funding for child care, around $16 million, as a Head Start grant recipient overseeing 11 different centers for infants and children up to 4 years old. Brockbank said the program has more than 290 employees and serves around 700 children.

The services provided at those centers go well beyond daycare supervision and early childhood education, and impact more than just the children, said Bobbi Woodral, district director of the Head Start and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program for Spokane Colleges. Head Start comes with built-in social services, so the colleges provide nutrition assistance, medical and dental care, dedicated case managers for families and more to the children and their families.

“We are not just raising a generation into the workforce, but truly raising families out of poverty and supporting the greater unit of the families,” Woodral said.

The Seattle office served 70 regional Head Start grant recipients, 30 of which are located in Washington. They were the main contact point for recipients, assisting with applications, regulatory compliance, safety precautions, ensuring grant dollars are stretched as far as possible and whatever else may arise, Ryan said.

“They’re supporting these programs and training and providing technical assistance, making sure teachers have the support they need to be great teachers, that Head Start directors understand the various rules and how to interpret the different standards that are in place,” he said.

Ryan said he believes the move preempts further cuts for the program, and it comes at a time when state legislators are also considering cuts to the Washington State early childhood education and care program.

“It’s going to make it exceedingly difficult for the families to find affordable child care so they can go to work, with both the state pulling back and now the feds attacking the Head Start program.”

Grant recipients had not received any word from the Trump administration about the cuts, or closures to regional offices, until the morning of March 27, according to an email sent to grantees obtained by The Spokesman-Review. Ryan said there’s been a lot of chaos and uncertainty for grantees and Office of Head Start employees in the days since, a sentiment Brockbank also shared.

When asked if Spokane Colleges had contacted the federal administration for further direction, the chancellor said, “There’s nowhere to direct that request.”

“It leaves us with this void in connecting effectively with the federal government, and that’s, of course, one of our concerns,” Brockbank said.

Ryan said the program has proven to be successful, highlighting a massive study conducted by University of California Los Angeles researchers that found children in the program are more likely to finish high school and college, find well-paying jobs and generate revenue for the government.

“The government makes (a return rate of) 5.4% to 9.1% per year for at least 30 years for every child it puts through Head Start, due solely to savings on public assistance and a small increase in tax revenue from higher wages earned by participants,” a university summary of the study reads.

Families that rely one of the 11 centers should not expect a disruption in services “until we’re told differently,” Brockbank said. He said school administrators are in touch with Republican Rep. Michael Baumgartner, and Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and will continue advocating against further cuts to the program.

“I don’t know if it’s a program that’s incredibly well-understood by everybody, but I will just say it again: if you take Head Start out of this community, it’s going to hurt it.”