Head Start sues Trump administration over DEI confusion, grant freezes to child care program

The Washington office representing federal Head Start child care for families in poverty is suing Trump administration officials responsible for the program in the wake of sporadic grant freezes and threats to end it entirely.

The 60-year-old federal program subsidizes child care for families below the poverty line, serving 800,000 infants to 4-year-olds around the nation, including 15,000 in child care centers in Washington.

Washington’s office representing Head Start is suing alongside the Illinois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin offices, along with lobbying groups from Oregon and Oakland. They’re suing the Trump administration, namely Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Andrew Gradison, Tara Hooban and their respective agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services, the Administration for Children and Families , and the Office of Head Start.

Head Start groups are represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, imploring judicial interference to stop what they allege is illegal overreach of the Trump administration to dismantle Head Start, a congressionally established program.

The 90-page complaint cites President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to eliminate Head Start completely by October, on top of his administration’s actions to dismantle the program thus far. Those include freezing grant funds during Trump’s first week in office and shuttering its regional office in Seattle, which laid off six employees at the start of April. Across the nation, the Trump administration closed offices in 22 other states, nearly half of the program’s administrative offices.

The confusion and uncertainty brewed by grant freezes and fewer support staff to run these programs resulted in the weeklong closure of a day care facility in Sunnyside. The Central Washington preschool serves 400 kids and employs 70 staff.

“Our goal is to make sure there’s no more Sunnysides across the country,” said Joel Ryan, executive director of Head Start in Washington.

The lawsuit alleges diversity, equity and inclusion programing is the main issue; budget materials from the Trump Administration describe Head Start as a program that “uses a ‘radical’ curriculum and gives preference to illegal immigrants” and “criticizes it for diversity, equity and inclusion programming and the use of resources that encourage toddlers to welcome children and families with different sexual orientations,” the lawsuit reads, quoting from Trump administration budget materials.

Federal agencies never provided any guidance on what constitutes DEI, Ryan said, and how they can remove these elements from their services while also targeting the “diverse needs of the population served,” as is mandated in the Head Start Act.

“The programs have to serve 10% kids with disabilities, but then you’re not allowed to do inclusion. What does that mean? You’re not allowed to meet their needs? You’re not allowed to train teachers to meet their needs? You have to segregate them?” said Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, an attorney with the ACLU who is representing the plaintiffs in the suit.

A drafted version of the complaint defends Head Start programs as beneficial to bridging economic and racial disparities in child care access. Created in 1965 by Congress as a civil rights-era effort, Head Start seeks to address poverty-related issues at the root: providing child care to working families and giving poor kids access to preschool education.

“Head Start’s educational programming has generated documented improvements in the health, educational outcomes, and financial prospects of participating children and families,” the complaint reads. “For parents and caregivers – especially mothers, who carry a disproportionate share of child care responsibilities, access to Head Start enables them to provide for their families. Without Head Start, many women, and especially women of color, would not be able to work or go to school.”

More than 75% of Head Start’s children are from families of color, 15% have a disability and 30% live in rural areas the complaint describes as “child care deserts.”

“We live in a much more diverse country, and if the Head Start program is going to provide an opportunity for all kids, the services are going to be slightly different for each family,” Ryan said. “It’s individualized, and we’re saying that’s what you should do in order to make sure our kids get what they need.”