WA Head Start programs shaken in aftermath of Trump funding freeze

Issues with a federal payment system have rattled Head Start programs across Washington.

As of Monday, about a quarter of Head Start grant recipients in Washington were locked out of a system they use to collect federal payments in the wake of the Trump administration’s brief but chaotic freeze on federal grants last week.

As of early Wednesday morning, one program, on the Olympic Peninsula, still could not access the system, said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP, during a virtual news conference U.S. Sen Patty Murray held with other Washington officials. Shortly after the news conference ended, Ryan received word that the Olympic Peninsula program could reenter the payment system.

Head Start has provided early education and family support services to some of the country’s poorest families since the 1960s. In Washington, about 13,000 children receive services through Head Start.

“These are children who are experiencing homelessness, significant delays, disabilities and are living in deep poverty, and that funding freeze put their child care at risk last week,” Ryan told reporters.

Last week’s funding freeze and the lingering inability to access the system that Head Start uses to collect federal funds created an atmosphere of uncertainty for the longstanding program.

The National Head Start Association said that dozens of programs nationwide, serving nearly 20,000 young children, have reported “significant delays” in accessing funding.

Lori Pittman, policy, advocacy and government relations adviser at the Puget Sound Educational Service District, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon that the district was locked out of the payment system last week but later regained access. Puget Sound ESD serves about 1,200 children enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start in King and Pierce counties.

“It caused major chaos, it caused fear and I would just say, a position of untrust for the future,” Pittman said.

Pittman said the program must prove what it has spent on staff, curriculum, equipment and other expenses to request or “draw down” federal money and then get reimbursed.

“I think it’s a misconception that people think we’re given dollars and we put it in a bank account somewhere and we can use it,” Pittman said. “And that’s not how it works.”

Ryan said Tuesday that the new administration was “sowing uncertainty and chaos.”

“I think there’s still a lot of concern about people being able to access funding so they can pay their bills, their staff and their rent,” Ryan said. “And I think there’s some concern that, if it were to continue, will they be able to offer child care to families who need it?”