Hannah Van Dinter lived in a homeless shelter with two young kids beneath Washington’s snow-capped Olympic Mountains when she learned about Head Start. The landmark early childhood education program has served millions of working poor families with young children since it was established 60 years ago.
They were a good fit. The family of four lacked steady household income, and they kept running into “bad situations,” including a visit from CPS, she said. Unbearable pressure weighed on Van Dinter, her medically fragile children, and her husband, who has a service-related disability from his decade in the Navy.
But they were determined to “break the cycle,” the 26-year-old mother said. And since enrolling in Head Start nearly two years ago, she says they have.
“Our whole world changed,” she said, choking up. “I didn’t realize when I signed up how life-changing it was going to be.”
But Van Dinter now fears her Head Start program, which serves kids ages 5 and younger and their parents, may lose slots or be shut down by the Trump administration, so she and other families are speaking out.
Starting in late January, a series of presidential executive orders and Health and Human Service guidance letters threatened funding for social services providers — particularly those the administration said served “removable or illegal aliens,” or promoted “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives” and “gender ideology.”
While some orders have been blocked by judges, previously allocated funds to many Head Start programs have been delayed without explanation. Last month, Washington Sen. Patty Murray’s office released an analysis showing nearly $1 billion less funding had been distributed to the programs compared to the same time last year.
In response, last Monday, state Head Start associations and parent groups in six states sued the federal Department of Health and Human Services, its leader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and two offices he oversees. In court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington, they allege the department’s implementation of executive orders restricting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are unconstitutional; and, combined with other actions, it had illegally threatened Head Start access for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families. The plaintiffs also note that Head Start programs are required by law to prioritize slots and services for foster and homeless youth. Those two groups combined accounted for roughly 85,000 out of 800,000 children enrolled last year.
The advocates, represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Impact Fund, are requesting that a judge block the administration from “dismantling this crucial program in defiance of Congress.”
When contacted for this story, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.
“It’s everything I ever wanted to give my children. … If we would have never found safe and stable child care, we would be struggling to work and put it all together.”
— Hannah Van Dinter
Joel Ryan, executive director for the Washington State’s Head Start association, one of the groups that filed suit, emphasized Head Start’s critical role in setting up the most vulnerable families and children for success.
“Child welfare involvement — anything where you get into unstable housing, kids being moved from place to place, or experiencing homelessness, or moving into foster care — all of those things project into poor performance in school,” Ryan said. “This administration is not only destabilizing these programs for all families, but particularly for parents facing the child welfare system, and foster families who really depend on stable care — those are the families who will be most harmed.”
Congress created Head Start in 1965, and since then it has served 40 million children, many of them living in precarious circumstances. Nearly 60,000 were homeless last year, increasing the possibility that they become the subject of child maltreatment allegations. Independent research has found the Early Head Start program — focused on pregnant and newer mothers — reduced the likelihood of that outcome.
Now, the Trump administration is proposing the steepest cuts to the nation’s safety net in decades. The White House promises a new “golden age,” with early budget drafts pitching far less spending on education, health and housing programs and far more on defense and immigration enforcement. One leaked budget document eliminated Head Start, described it as “radical,” and called for “returning control of education to the states and increasing parental control.” More recent drafts did not include cuts to the $12 billion program, but litigation continues over delays and uncertainty for this year’s already allocated funds.
In the meantime, at least one Head Start program in central Washington has had to temporarily suspend services, leaving the families of 400 children scrambling to find alternatives, according to the Head Start supporters’ legal complaint. Another program in eastern Pennsylvania announced in a Thursday press release that their program, with 85 staff serving 362 children, would close on May 31 “due to the absence of formal notification regarding the renewal of its federal grant.” Over the weekend, the program was granted a one-month funding extension — a temporary reprieve pending a final decision on a longer-term grant.
“The Head Start program has helped my children get ready for kindergarten and beyond,” said Alice Bowens, a parent of two enrolled children in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. “My daughter now speaks more clearly, loves books, and looks forward to school every day. We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity this program has given our family.”
Van Dinter says her family speaks to what could be lost if Head Start is ultimately dismantled.
With stable child care and Head Start staff who supported the whole family, Van Dinter found work as a home health aide and got help enrolling in college. Her husband was connected with disability benefits. Their 4-year-old son who struggled to speak received special education services at Head Start, and can now carry a full conversation.
Today, the family lives in a house with a yard and their dog. Hannah dreams of becoming a park ranger. They’ve recently taken in foster children for short-term placements, to help pay forward their newfound stability.
“It’s everything I ever wanted to give my children,” she said about the Head Start program. “If we would have never found safe and stable child care, we would be struggling to work and put it all together.”
Living on $600 a month and relying on early childhood education
Taylor Madison, a single mother living in central Washington, said she is also concerned about the fate of the education program that has been vital to her recovery. The 31-year-old regained custody of her infant daughter in late 2021 after a brief state separation for foster care. Taylor spent a total of 18 grueling months in court battles with the state child welfare agency, and underwent inpatient addiction treatment.
Living on $600 per month with little other support after the case closed, Madison struggled with her daughter’s “extreme version of terrible 2’s” — acting out in day care, hurting other kids and staff, not listening, climbing and jumping off of tables. That provider threatened to disenroll her, and she feared the possibility of CPS paying her another visit.
But then she learned about the state-funded program similar to Head Start where she and her daughter are now enrolled, although it too faces possible budget cuts. Now, Madison has a team of three or four staff caring for her daughter during the day, with several others available around the clock supporting her efforts to be a good parent — even meeting the busy mom at the grocery store to talk while she shops.
Two behavioral therapists work with her and her daughter, to “make sure I have healthy solutions, to make sure I parent the way I want to parent — instead of the way I was raised,” she said.
Asked to describe how the combined assistance helped, she added: “The best short and sweet way I can put it is: It gave me a blinding light at the end of the tunnel, when I felt lost.”
But these days, Madison hears talk of slots in her program disappearing later this year, and the possibility of a raise in fees she won’t be able to afford.
“For people who want to cut it, that’d be devastating for my family,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to work, my daughter wouldn’t have the necessary services.”
