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In DeKalb and Kane counties west of Chicago, more than 240 low-income families depend on Two Rivers Head Start Agency for child care, a food pantry, car repairs, baby items, and other services. But over the last six months, since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, Executive Director Kelly Neidel has seen families stop coming out of fear of being deported.
Now, she worries that a new Trump administration directive, which bars undocumented children from accessing Head Start, will further erode the bonds between families and providers.
“Head Start is all about building trust,” said Neidel, whose organization operates three centers across the two counties and receives funding from Head Start and the Community Service Block Grant among other funds. “And I think this will do the opposite.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier this month that it is rescinding an almost 30-year-old guidance from the Clinton administration that allowed undocumented immigrants to access Head Start and other programs because they were not considered federal public benefits. Under the change, Head Start is now classified as a public benefit, meaning undocumented immigrants do not qualify for the program.
The change has caused confusion among Illinois Head Start providers and advocates who are concerned for the families they serve, unsure what they are expected to do, and worried about a drop in student enrollment that would mean losing funding.
Head Start serves almost 29,000 children and pregnant women across Illinois, according to the Illinois Head Start Association.
Under current Head Start rules, providers are responsible for checking a family’s eligibility to enroll in the program. But they’ve never been required to collect citizenship data, according to some Illinois Head Start providers. While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has yet to say how Head Start providers should check for immigration status, some providers are concerned that it will place an administrative burden on staff at child care centers.
Nadia Gronkowski, program manager of advocacy and policy at Start Early, an early childhood advocacy group and Head Start grantee that distributes federal funding to community-based organizations, worries about the consequences of having this policy and its impact on staff.
“It sort of all depends on how it’s implemented, but there’s a possibility that [staff] would now need to be checking out citizenship verification for every student,” said Gronkowski. “That’s a significant amount of staff time and costs to do that sort of verification.”
Other Head Start providers are concerned about a possible drop in enrollment. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, Head Start rolled out a “full enrollment initiative,” which required providers to keep enrollment levels at or above 97% every year. If enrollment drops below that, the federal Office of Head Start can reduce annual funding.
Brenda Berman, spokesperson for the Carole Robertson Center, a Head Start grantee that serves over 15,000 children and adults through partnerships and runs three child care centers in Chicago, said withholding funding could create a “spiraling effect.” If the Carole Robertson Center loses funding, it would lose slots for children, impacting families and communities.
For now, Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association, said her organization is encouraging Head Start providers not to implement any new policies until there is further guidance from the Trump administration. However, she doesn’t know when that will happen.
“From what we hear, the Office of Head Start has been told by the administration to work on guidance,” said Morrison-Frichtl. “It’ll be weeks before any guidance comes out, or months. I’d be surprised if we have it by the end of the summer.”
There has been pushback to the Trump administration’s policy changes. The Illinois Head Start Association along with other state Head Start associations are a part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union arguing that changes to Head Start are “unconstitutional and unlawful” and requesting a stop to all “actions to dismantle Head Start.” The lawsuit was originally filed in late April, and the ACLU is seeking to amend the lawsuit this month to include a challenge to the recent directive barring undocumented children from the program.
Additionally, 20 states, including Illinois, and the District of Columbia announced on Monday they are suing the Trump administration over new rules to restrict undocumented immigrants and some visa-holders from federal programs that provide early childhood education, health care, and other services saying the administration did not follow procedures to establish new rules, misinterprets federal welfare laws, and puts an excessive burden on Head Start providers to verify immigration status of students and their families.
Head Start has provided access to child care, preschool, and other services for low-income families for 60 years and historically received bipartisan support. Now, the program is facing challenges under Trump’s second term and is at risk of being eliminated.
Earlier in April, the federal Department of Health and Human Services closed five of ten regional Head Start offices around the country, including one in Chicago that served Illinois and states throughout the Midwest.
When Trump ordered a freeze on federal grants in January, child care programs were unable to access funds used for their day-to-day operations. Even when the decision was reversed within days, child care providers still struggled in February to access funding. Some even had to close their doors temporarily to families.
Despite the uncertainty, some child care providers and advocates are staying optimistic.
“Earlier this year when Head Start was proposed for elimination, the Head Start community rallied like we have never seen it rally before,” Gronkowski said. “They stood up and said, ‘You can’t do this, this is important to our communities, and this is important to our families.’”
She hopes people will continue to rally around the program.
Neidel, of Two Rivers Head Start Agency, said she wants to ensure kids are safe and to maintain relationships with families, but it’s hard with the changes happening at the federal level.
“You just want to, sometimes, break down and cry,” said Neidel, describing her worries about the families she serves. “Because you’re looking at them and thinking, ‘God, what’s going to happen to them?’”
Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.
