Texas Head Start closures during government shutdown add to state’s child care woes

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LUFKIN — For Michelle Martinez, the politics in Washington was just background noise in the busy day of a single mom.

Every morning, she takes her kids to different schools across San Marcos, a town of 74,000 people just south of Austin, before going to work. Sports, dinner and baths fill up the evenings.

The full impact of the government shutdown didn’t hit until she packed a bag for her youngest child, 3-year-old Jazlyn, for an extended stay at Jazlyn’s grandma’s house in South Texas. Jazlyn’s Head Start program closed its doors to students on Oct. 30 due to a lack of federal funding. Without any other child care options, Martinez left her baby with her mom.

“We came home without my little daughter,” Martinez said. “She had to stay behind because I don’t have child care readily available. I have a grandmother, a mom and I have an aunt.”

Jazlyn is one of an estimated 1,900 Texas children enrolled in a Head Start program that has either closed or will close if the government does not reopen soon, according to The First Five Years Fund, a child care advocacy group.

Head Start is a federally funded program that provides free child care for infants to children from low-income families or who live with disabilities. It’s a lifeline for families across the country who can’t access traditional child care due to high costs.

While the total children without a seat as a result of the shutdown is a fraction of the 60,000 enrolled in a Texas Head Start program, the abrupt closures offer a stark reminder of how perilous child care and early education are for families.

The federal government shut down Oct. 1 after Congress failed to pass funding legislation. Since then, thousands of federal workers have either been furloughed, fired, or required to work without pay. Families have lost their food subsidies. Airline travel has been disrupted. Head Start programs across the country, which are funded on a rolling basis, began closing around Nov. 1.

This week offered some hope that the government could reopen soon after the U.S. Senate approved a spending package. Even if the government did open this week, a path to reboot Head Start programs that shut down is unclear, experts said.

Applications for federal funding are filed at the first of every month for different groups of Head Start programs. Half a dozen Texas-based programs were unable to submit funding applications on Nov. 1, according to The First Five Years Fund.

There is nowhere else for many of these kids to go. Texas already faces a child care crisis with nearly 95,000 children on a waiting list for state-funded scholarships that would enable them to enter private programs. And there are lengthy waiting lists for individual programs in many areas that could further complicate the matter.

Without alternatives, many families are looking at tough decisions like Martinez had to make. Some parents may have to leave the workforce to care for their young ones, while others will turn to family and even older children for support.

“Not only are these families and children without care and without learning experiences, these employees are also without jobs,” said Kim Kofron, the senior director of early childhood education for Children At Risk, a child advocacy group. “Now we’ve also added more people to the unemployment numbers, because they have lost work again. And at no fault of their own, no fault of their employer, just simply because their application was due on Nov. 1.”

Martinez scrambled for care after she separated from her husband last year. She couldn’t afford the tuition for two preschool-aged girls to attend a private program on her own. Tuition at one school was $1,000 per child, she said.

When Martinez learned she could apply for Head Start, and had both her young girls accepted, she could breathe again. The program Jaelyn, 5, attends is attached to the local school district and has remained open.

“Both girls come home and tell their brothers their stories, they bring home little pictures they colored and the projects they did,” Martinez said. “They are just so excited about learning and going to these schools.”

Head Start was established in 1965 to help low-income families kick-start their children’s education before kindergarten. Public schools, nonprofit child care centers and faith-based programs may all receive funding to open programs. And Head Start has evolved to do more than just educate young children. It also supports new moms, provides health support for disabled children and connects families like Martinez’ with a network of services.

In 2024, the federal government paid more than $826 million to Texas Head Start and Early Head Start programs to serve the state’s youngest residents and their families. This was just a portion of the $12.2 billion spent to serve more than 715,000 U.S. residents.

“We work with the entire family,” said Karen Swenson, of the Greater East Texas Community Action Program. “We address the needs of the entire family to try to help their circumstances improve so that they can, in fact, be successful in improving the lives of the children and the family.”

Community Action regional programs like Swenson’s were also established in the mid-1960s and help low-income households with a variety of services, including Head Start, job training and grants to help pay certain bills.

For Kelley Pomeroy, a 32-year-old mom of two boys in Seguin, Early Head Start has been vital. She couldn’t afford regular tuition at a private preschool by herself and is on the waiting list for a state-funded scholarship.

Her son’s Head Start program provides continuous monitoring for any lasting impacts of trauma he experienced in the womb. Pomeroy was in a car accident that resulted in the early delivery of Levi, who is now 18-months old. He spent weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Head Start has professionals specifically trained to help children like him.

“We aren’t just partnering with teachers,” Pomeroy said. “We are partnering with nurses and people who come in and do these evaluations, the hearing screening, the vision screening, the speech screening. We went through so much with these people.”

If Levi’s Head Start program closes, Pomeroy would likely have to quit her job.

Pomeroy, who lives outside of San Antonio, works from home in health care as a customer care representative and has to follow strict federal health care privacy guidelines — one of which is that no one, including her son, can be in the same room with her as she works.

She is on the waitlist for a child care scholarship through the Texas Workforce Commission. Last time she checked, it could be another nine months before she receives funding.

Levi’s teachers have been transparent about the shutdown. The program’s funds should hold out until the end of November, but if nothing changes come December, it could be a different story. That has done nothing to loosen the knots forming in Pomeroy’s stomach.

“We’re stressed about food. We’re stressed about living. We’re stressed about making ends meet. I am at that point where, pardon my French, but fuck the politics,” said Pomeroy, who has contacted lawmakers to push them to end the shutdown. “I want to live for the next two weeks, for the next month, and I want to be able to keep going.”

Swenson, who leads the East Texas Community Action program, is also contacting lawmakers. She said her Head Start programs hope to submit their funding applications on Dec. 1. She prays the shutdown is resolved by then. Finding external funding to keep the doors open would be exceptionally difficult. And low-income families would be particularly at a loss.

One of the Head Start programs under Swenson is in Trinity County, which is home to 13,850 people in 2023, according to the United Way ALICE county report. It is primarily blue-collar. The county’s poverty rate is 17%, and 32% of residents are considered “working poor.” Most of those in need are single mothers.

“We are very prayerful, and we’re going to be faithful that this is going to work out,” Swenson said. “Because the last thing we want to do is interrupt services to children. That is the absolute last resort.”

Martinez doesn’t know when she’ll be able to bring her 3-year-old home, but she knows Jazlyn is well cared for. She’s busy being spoiled by grandma in South Texas.

Even when Congress finds common ground and funds the government, restarting Head Start won’t be a quick or easy process. It could take weeks or longer for programs to resume.

First, furloughed government employees will have to return to work. And there will be a backlog of funding applications to process. Head Start leaders will have to rehire staff and reach out to families.

“Of course, there’s going to be a lag time,” said Kofron, of Children at Risk. “That doesn’t happen instantly.”

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