The Trump administration’s proposed elimination of federal regulations for the Head Start program leaves state and Island childcare officials unsure about the impact to a Vineyard nonprofit that offers childcare services.
The program, which is operated by Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS), includes home-based care that serves roughly 36 children, the majority of whom speak Portuguese as their home language, according to the organization’s annual report.
On August 6, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to remove many of the regulations that govern the program, such as requirements for low staff-to-student ratios and health-screening services for children and their families. The notice is open to public comment until Oct. 6.
First launched in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, Head Start is a federal program that provides early childhood education and health and nutrition services to low-income children and families. The program is governed by more than 100 pages of regulations, and has 1,600 operators across the country and territories.
Federal officials said that gutting federal regulations will promote more local decisionmaking by leaving matters up to state discretion, while also cutting costs. The notice also proposes a 5 percent spending limit of a program’s grant on administrative expenses, down from 15 percent, as well as new nutrition standards.
Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, argued that the changes, such as requiring unhoused parents to provide documentation, would harm marginalized communities. “There are incredibly harmful impacts for specific populations. The rule will reduce eligibility for families experiencing homelessness by disallowing them from self-attesting their homelessness status [and] requiring documentation that many families cannot access,” Haimowitz said.
Haimowitz also opposes a mandate that would require all programming to be conducted in English, which she said “is against decades of science and research on best practice for dual-language learners.”
Scott Turton, MVCS chief executive officer, said he can understand both sides of the issue. “Administratively, there is opportunity sometimes in reviewing regulations and saying, ‘Which ones of these work, and which ones of these don’t?’ and ‘What would make it easier on a day-to-day basis for these programs to operate?’” Turton said. “But I also get the other side that says … if it feels like it’s a core regulation that keeps everything sort of consistent and true to the mission of the original program the way it was set up, then why would you get rid of that?”
Turton said that MVCS is still trying to determine how the proposed changes would impact its program.
On the homelessness issue, I think the essential change is simply that self-attestation alone would no longer be sufficient and some form of documentation would be required. Homeless children would remain eligible and could still enroll while that documentation is gathered. It is fair to ask whether obtaining verification could be difficult for some families, but requiring documentation is not the same as denying them access. The article should make that distinction clearer and give readers more of the administration’s stated reasoning, not just the objections to it.