Head Start can still use words like ‘race’ and ‘women’ for federal funding, judge says

A federal judge has blocked efforts by the Trump administration to curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within Head Start early child care programs, which included attempts to revoke funding from providers who use words like “women” and “race” on grant applications. 

Wednesday’s temporary injunction, which also prevented mass layoffs for the program, is the latest development in a legal battle between Head Start programs and the Trump administration, as the president continues his attempts to erase DEI and accessibility measures across federally supported programs. 

In December, Head Start providers and two advocacy groups said in a court filing that the Trump administration had threatened to withhold funding for Head Start programs that use certain language — including words like “race,” “bias,” and “equitable” — on grant applications.

Plaintiffs, including Head Start programs in Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and Illinois, argue that the removal of DEI initiatives and inclusive language is contradictory to Head Start’s mission.

The ban on language “that they have been trying to implement really is contrary to what the Head Start providers are required to do under federal law, under the Head Start Act,” said Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, which filed the lawsuit. 

In May, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. outlined his plans to preserve Head Start programs in a letter to congressional lawmakers, assuring that they would receive funding as long as they remained “consistent with Administration priorities” — as the administration was cracking down on DEI measures. This promise came after a leaked HHS budget draft reportedly suggested eliminating program funding altogether amid extreme health cuts. 

The administration’s attempts to restrict Head Start have faced previous setbacks in the courts. In September, a judge ruled that HHS could not exclude families from receiving Head Start services on account of their immigration status. 

For more than 60 years, Head Start has served economically disadvantaged families, disproportionately  Black or Latinx. Trump’s proposed conditions for funding will affect program directors’ ability to adequately serve these communities, particularly people with disabilities.

Calvo-Friedman shared that one Head Start Director in Washington was forced to remove from a grant proposal a plan to provide educators specialized training in teaching children diagnosed with autism. Children with autism account for at least 10 percent of the kids the director serves.

“The director of the program was like, ‘I need my teachers to have training in this so that these kids can be able to get equal access to education’ and they put that in their grant application and were told that they had to take it out,” Calvo-Friedman said. “And so I think it creates this absurd situation where it’s like, how do you serve kids with disabilities if you can’t use the word disability?”

The administration’s efforts could significantly undermine the program, which already faced a major setback in November during the federal government funding freeze when it was forced to close sites in 17 states and Puerto Rico.

“It would be absolutely devastating on children, on families and on the economics in entire communities,” Calvo-Friedman said. “For children, it would mean immediate loss of early childhood education, which has been shown to be critical in being ready for school and then having opportunities to succeed for the rest of their life in the future because they were able to be prepared to succeed in school. So it really would be cutting off opportunities to children.”

The program can also provide critical support for parents, who especially in rural areas may lack other options for child care, Calvo-Friedman said. 

“What they’re trying to do by making it impossible for Head Start programs to do what they’re legally required to do is one, make it more difficult to run the program,” Calvo-Friedman said, “but two, erase entire communities from those that are being served.”