Trump overhaul could gut Head Start preschool standards, leaving states
to set the rules
[August 04, 2026]
By MORIAH BALINGIT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration is planning a
dramatic overhaul of Head Start that would gut its quality standards,
upending the hallmarks of the early education program for impoverished
children, two people familiar with the deliberations said.
Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long
been considered by experts to be a gold standard early learning program.
Its regulations, which stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements
on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings
to family engagement.
Trump's Republican administration would replace those regulations with
around a dozen pages of rules, leaving most of the specifics up to state
and local law, said the people familiar with the deliberations, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not
yet public and because they feared reprisal.
In a post on X, the Department of Health and Human Services, which
oversees Head Start, said to expect a rule to be published this week.
The administration “remains committed to strengthening Head Start by
preserving federal investment in the program while advancing reforms
that expand access, increase local flexibility, reduce unnecessary
administrative burden, and ensure services are delivered effectively to
children and families in need," department spokesperson Emily Hilliard
said Monday in an email.
The draft rules would require more documentation from parents who are
homeless or unemployed, the people familiar with the deliberations told
The Associated Press. An early version of the proposal also would have
barred parents who are in the United States illegally from enrolling
their children, even if the children are U.S. citizens. It's unclear
whether those provisions will make the final draft.
Head Start, which operates in all 50 states, has long enjoyed robust
bipartisan support. But some prominent conservatives in recent years
have called for its elimination, saying the federal government should
get out of the education business at every level. Deregulating the
program would deliver a win for them and aligns with the Trump
administration's goals of scrapping rules it views as onerous or
unnecessary.
Head Start is designed to target poverty, experts say
Head Start serves more than half a million low-income babies, toddlers
and preschoolers nationwide. For families that qualify, it offers free
preschool and screenings to identify developmental delays. It also
offers supports for families.
If the changes take effect, they could make Head Start unrecognizable,
said Khari Garvin, who ran the Office of Head Start under Democratic
President Joe Biden.
“We’d have the carcass of Head Start,” Garvin said. “You might have a
program that’s called Head Start, but in substance it will not be.”
The proposed rules were originally reported in The Bulwark.
Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association,
said the organization has yet to see the proposed rules.
“When it does come out,” Sheridan said, “we’ll be ready to fight back
where we need to fight back.”
Once the proposal is made public, federal law requires the
administration to give at least a month for the public to weigh in on
it. If any new rules are finalized, there may be a delay before they
take effect, and potential lawsuits could halt implementation.
Current rules cover dental screenings and staff-to-student ratios
Head Start was created as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on
Poverty and targets the myriad challenges that low-income households
face. It serves children and adults alike, coaching parents on reaching
their goals, connecting them with services and even employing them.
Head Start operators, which include school districts and nonprofit
organizations, are required to provide medical, dental and vision
screenings for children and to monitor them for developmental delays.
There are also curriculum frameworks and prohibitions on physical and
emotional abuse of children.
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Students help put away supplies at the end of a reading and writing
lesson at the Head Start program run by Easterseals, an organization
that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government,
Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell,
File)
Many of the features that make Head Start distinct from mainstream
preschools are spelled out in 122 pages of performance standards.
The Trump administration’s proposal would toss most of that rule
book and replace it with a much shorter version that eliminates or
loosens many requirements, the people familiar with the proposal
said. The proposal also calls for some new regulations, such as
requiring all instruction in English.
Requirements around staff-to-student ratios and safety standards
would be erased. Operators instead would be instructed to follow
local and state laws, which are often more permissive. And the new
proposal also says nothing about suspensions and expulsions, the
people said, making it easier for programs to kick out kids with
disabilities who are difficult to educate.
Jody Smith, a lead Head Start teacher south of Seattle, said she’s
seen firsthand how critical many of the requirements are, especially
the ones for engaging with families and screening kids for
disabilities. Smith was a high school dropout when she enrolled her
first child in Head Start, where she was encouraged to go back to
school and inspired to become a teacher. Later, Head Start helped
diagnose her youngest child with autism.
Without Head Start, “I would have probably stayed as a poverty
line,” Smith said. “And I don’t know that we would have gotten as
far in life as we have.”
Head Start has faced several threats
The numerous standards are key to preparing Head Start kids for
kindergarten, said Ruth Friedman, who helped Democratic President
Barack Obama's administration draft the regulations now in jeopardy.
“If the administration strikes down those standards, it would set
back our nation’s educational goals and our efforts to reduce
poverty, and it is explicitly prohibited by the Head Start law
itself,” Friedman said.
Head Start, which has enjoyed robust bipartisan support for decades,
has faced several threats since Trump took office last year. Project
2025, a conservative policy blueprint authored by the official who
is now Trump's budget chief, called for the federal government to
get rid of the program altogether. Last year, in a draft budget, the
administration proposed exactly that, saying: “The federal
government should not be in the business of mandating curriculum,
locations, and performance standards for any form of education.”
After public outcry, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose
department oversees Head Start, told Congress the program's funding
was safe.
Funding for the program was disrupted not long after Trump took
office, leading some programs to have to shutter temporarily. It was
once again halted after a government shutdown in October that led
some centers briefly to close their doors.
Trump’s administration has chipped away at the program in other
ways. The administration let go scores of federal workers who
supported the program and closed half of its regional offices. It
also began discouraging those seeking Head Start grants from using
words like “woman” or “race” in their applications, part of an
effort to root out diversity, equity or inclusion programs.
Officials also set out to bar undocumented immigrants from the
program. Courts put both the anti-DEI and anti-immigration efforts
on hold after lawsuits.
Earlier this year, Trump officials also erased a Biden-era rule that
mandated raises and greater benefits for Head Start employees. When
the rule went in to effect in 2024, Head Start teachers, the
majority of whom have bachelor's degrees, earned less than $40,000 a
year on average.
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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed reporting.
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