Overhaul of Head Start could endanger CT children, advocates say

The CREC South Head Start location in Hartford on April 14, 2025.

" data-large-file="https://ctmirror.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025_0414_SR_HeadStart_007-771x514.jpg" /> Advocates and legislators condemned the proposed overhaul of a federal early childhood program — changes they said would endanger programming that serves thousands of Connecticut children.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in August announced sweeping changes to Head Start, a federal program that serves low-income children up to age 5. According to a recent report by the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood, 4,847 children and pregnant women participated in 34 federally funded Head Start programs in the state during the 2024-2025 school year.

The proposed rule would allow for larger class sizes, no longer require degrees for many staff, loosen federal requirements for serving children with disabilities and require education programs to be taught in English. If the changes are approved, Head Start would defer to state and local childcare standards, which some researchers have found to be less stringent than the program’s longtime requirements.

HHS also plans to reduce the cap on administrative overhead from 15% to 5% of total program costs. According to an August press release, the agency estimates the changes could save $2.2 billion and support as many as 236,000 additional Head Start slots nationwide.

“This is really a multipronged attack at all of the things that make Head Start what it is,” Merrill Gay, executive director of Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance, said of the proposed changes.

In an emailed statement, an HHS spokesperson said the changes would bolster Head Start by “expanding access for eligible children, reducing unnecessary federal bureaucracy and empowering local providers.”

The spokesperson stressed that the agency will still require Head Start programs to provide support for mental and physical health, family and disability services and school readiness preparation, as is mandated by federal law.

“What changes is that programs will have more latitude in how they meet these requirements, based on the needs of their specific community, rather than a one-size-fits-all federal directive,” the spokesperson added.

But Gay and Eva Bermúdez Zimmerman, executive director of Child Care for CT, argued that eliminating Head Start’s longtime requirements would reduce the quality of care participants receive.

“If anybody believes that this is about reducing burdensome bureaucratic regulations, that’s like saying, ‘we’re going to make the food system safer by firing inspectors,’” Gay said.

The proposed changes to Head Start come a year after Connecticut launched a state-funded childcare program, Early Start CT. Starting in July 2027, the program aims to provide free childcare to eligible families earning up to $100,000 each year and cap the childcare contribution at 7% of household income for eligible families earning more than $100,000.

“We’re in the beginning of blossoming changes to child care,” Bermúdez Zimmerman said. “If in fact the federal government starts chipping away at the things that we thought were fundamental, that we were depending on to build on, it’s not a great reality.”

Head Start’s proposed rule is accepting feedback from the public until Oct. 6.

According to Bermúdez Zimmerman, Child Care for CT has sent out email and social media blasts and held a community meeting on Monday urging people to submit public comments condemning the changes. The organization has created a toolkit that breaks down the proposed changes to Head Start and explains how to draft a public comment.

Child Care for CT also sent an email blast on Monday to each member of Connecticut’s state legislature. The organization’s goal is to get at least 50% of state legislators to submit public comments criticizing the changes, Bermúdez Zimmerman said.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff released a joint statement Thursday morning lambasting the proposed changes and urging state Republicans to join their demand for the rule’s withdrawal.

“The Trump regime wants to strip away more than 90% of the standards that make Head Start work, from limits on class size to the requirement that young children be supervised at all times,” the Democratic senators said in the statement. “This is inhumane, and it’s how you kill a program without having the courage to vote on it.”

But Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, voiced support for the proposed changes in an emailed statement.

“To get kids ready for school, it makes sense to simplify complex, outdated federal rules and give states more flexibility in decision-making,” he said. “Let states like Connecticut debate and craft their own common sense rules and reforms to better serve children.”