Head Start supports school readiness for children from birth to age 5, including free childcare, nutrition assistance, health screenings, and resources for pregnant women. It’s serving 42,997 people across New York State this year, including thousands of homeless families.
(Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)
On July 10, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a policy change to the federal Head Start program that would exclude undocumented immigrant children from enrollment.
The proposal would rescind a 1998 Clinton-era interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). It allowed certain children without legal immigration status to access services that were not considered “federal public benefits,” but rather part of the government’s school readiness education program.
The rules are expected to take effect after publication in the Federal Register on Aug. 13, following a 30-day public comment period.
They’re part of a set of changes by President Donald Trump to make it harder for immigrants to access government services, and comes as his administration adds stricter requirements for public assistance.
HHS also listed other federally funded programs that would now be considered “public benefits” to exclude immigrants without legal status, which HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said had previously “diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration.”
Soon after the announcement, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the administration, while advocates condemned the plan.
Should the new rule take effect, it would require verification of a child’s citizenship or immigration status before they could be enrolled in a Head Start program, excluding undocumented children nationwide.
Head Start offers a variety of services to support school readiness for children from birth to age 5, including free childcare, nutrition assistance, health screenings, and resources for pregnant women.
It primarily serves children from low-income families, but also children who don’t have a home, are in foster care, or receiving public assistance. In the past, the program was also available to legal permanent residents, children who’ve been granted asylum, humanitarian parole or refugee status.
According to HHS’s final regulatory impact analysis, Congress provided $12.27 billion for the Head Start Preschool and Early Head Start programs in fiscal year 2024, to serve 718,947 children and pregnant women throughout the country.
While HHS oversees the program, it’s mostly run by local municipalities. New York City Public Schools (NYCPS, formerly known as the Department of Education) runs Head Start programs in the city, as well as a network of providers that receive funding directly from the federal government. City Limits reached out to providers receiving federal funds, but they declined to speak publicly about the matter, worried it would jeopardize their funding.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced the policy change on July 10. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
The National Head Start Association (NHSA), a nonprofit that represents Head Start staff and families, says Head Start funded 42,997 program seats in New York State in fiscal year 2024. The program served 3,807 local homeless families, but neither officials nor advocates know how many might be excluded from the program if undocumented children are made ineligible.
Both NYCPS and the Office of Children and Family Services for New York State (OCFS) don’t know exactly how many children may lose coverage, the agencies told City Limits.
“New York City Public Schools does not track or ask for our students’ immigration status or country of origin,” a City Hall spokesperson said. “We are reviewing this change and will continue to monitor the situation.”
An OCFS spokesperson said via email that the agency is “currently assessing the impact of the guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).”
HSS’s final regulatory impact analysis acknowledges that estimating the share of beneficiaries it would exclude “is inherently uncertain since this demographic information is not currently collected under the 1998 Notice.”
According to their estimates, however, “approximately 115,000 Head Start children and families could be impacted, or about 16 percent” of Head Start enrollees nationwide during the last fiscal year.
NHSA Deputy Director Tommy Sheridan raised concerns about the policy’s potential to create barriers for children and families, especially those experiencing homelessness. “Producing documentation is a challenge, and we need to be mindful of that as we’re thinking about the verification of this,” he said.
“We’re also really worry that requiring Head Start programs to verify [immigration] status changes both the relationship that we have with families as well as with the community, and is something that will pull us away from our primary job, which is to ensure that children are prepared for school and that families are ready to succeed in life as well,” he added.
Nora Moran, the director of policy & advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, which provides Head Start services, said that the program’s providers and city administrators have never had to ask children or their families about their immigration status as a condition for enrollment.
“We know that there are families with varying immigration statuses who enroll their children in Head Start programs, but we cannot offer a precise number,” Moran said.
She said the announcement has confused community-based organizations that run Head Start programs. Previously, providers said their main responsibility was to identify people in the city who met the program’s income, housing, and other eligibility criteria, adding that the U.S. government had for decades viewed Head Start as an early education program, rather than a public benefit that would exclude noncitizens.
“United Neighborhood Houses condemns the federal administration’s latest attempt to undermine our communities,” said the organization’s Executive Director Susan Stamler. “To be clear: throwing immigrant children out of Head Start programs or adults out of education and training programs is as senseless as it is cruel.”
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