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Without grant funding, fewer kids served by Iowa Head Start programs
The early childhood education program provides free child care, preschool to low income families
Sep. 11, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Sep. 11, 2025 7:48 am
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Some Head Start programs in Iowa that provide child care and early learning that “serves Iowa’s most vulnerable families” at no cost, have reduced operations — with a few even closing classrooms — because of compounding funding challenges.
Those funding challenges include discontinuation of a state grant this year that some programs relied on, federal funding that fails to keep up with inflation, and new salary goals for teachers, Iowa’s Head Start leaders say.
“It’s more than just losing one classroom. They lost a significant amount of their ability to serve students,” said Josh Ehn, superintendent of the Oelwein Community School District.
In Oelwein, one of three Head Start preschool classrooms closed and the program — operated by Northeast Iowa Community Action Agency — is no longer offering child care before and after school and over the summer.
“I think we don’t really, truly, fully understand the impact yet. Are parents getting support to stay in the workforce? What does this look like for our child care center?” Ehn said.
Another question is will rising 4-year-olds be less prepared for preschool and kindergarten because they didn’t receive early childhood education, Ehn said.
Discontinued grant leaves Head Start short on funding
Iowa Heath and Human Services discontinued a wrap around child care grant this year. That amounted to a loss of $600,000 for the Northeast Community Action Agency’s Head Start program, said Trisha Wilkins, chief executive officer of the agency.
Iowa received more than $89 million in federal Head Start funding in fiscal year 2024, supporting nearly 7,500 children and 6,650 families, sustaining more than 2,300 jobs and enabling over 5,300 parents to work or pursue education, said Lori Ferris, executive director of Head Start Iowa.
“Given the substantial investment in local communities and research supporting positive long-term outcomes, such as Head Start children are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, less likely to have criminal behavior and behavior problems as an adolescent and adult, and more likely to have improved physical and mental health, it is time for Iowa's next governor to ensure this investment not only continues but strategically becomes a permanent part of Iowa's statewide early learning infrastructure, especially for rural and underserved communities,” Ferris said.
The state is encouraging more programs to participate in its existing Child Care Assistance Program, which most Head Start programs currently do not use because it doesn’t cover all the expenses, Ferris said.
“There’s much more administrative burden requiring more staff hours related to billing and monitoring and it’s paid in the rear, it’s not paid up front, so it’s very hard to budget for,” Ferris said of the Child Care Assistance Program.
Survey data collected a few years ago by Common Good Iowa — a nonpartisan nonprofit that informs policy — indicated child care centers taking Child Care Assistance were losing up to $100,000 a year in revenue.
“We know programs lose money taking Child Care Assistance because it doesn’t reimburse at a rate they can make a profit or break even,” said Sheila Hanson, senior policy advocate and government relations manager with Common Good Iowa.
Head Start misses out on new grants
There are other state grants aiming to strengthen Iowa’s child care system, but Head Start doesn’t qualify for them because it is not considered a statewide voluntary preschool program.
Historically, statewide voluntary preschool programs are administered through school districts, Ferris said.
Iowa statewide voluntary preschool is a half-day program for children who are 4 years of age on or before Sept. 15. It is provided at no cost to families.
Half-day programs can be a barrier for some working families as they require midday transportation to child care, according to Iowa Health and Human Services.
The Early Childhood Child Care Continuum of Care grant seeks to solve this barrier by offering families full-day options through partnerships between child care providers and preschools.
In July, the state announced 19 child care and preschool program partnerships each received grants of up to $300,000 over three years, a total of $5 million in state investment so far.
Reduced services in Northeast Iowa
The Northeast Iowa Community Action Agency has closed five Head Start classrooms — including one in Oelwein — across its seven-county region in the last year, Wilkins said.
That’s a reduction in capacity of about 120 kids, she said. The agency’s Head Start enrollment now is about 155 kids, ages birth to 4 years, across 10 remaining classrooms.
“We don’t close because of lack of need. It’s because of budget,” Wilkins said. “We’ve had to reduce our enrollment because of continuous, stagnant funding at the federal level.”
Another change is that the agency’s Head Start is only open from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. during the school year. Previously, child care had been available from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Closing programs and reducing hours was “the last option we considered,” said Sharon Burke, Head Start director with Northeast Iowa Community Action. “We can’t provide a service we don’t have the funding to provide.”
With the reduced service hours, about a dozen child care workers were laid off.
Head Start is more than early childhood education, Burke said. “That’s what makes us stand apart from other preschools,” she said.
“We are also making sure they are up to date with their well baby checkups, physicals and dental appointments. We serve nutritious meals, work with families for mental health services if they’re struggling, and have a person on staff who can connect them with resources. It’s a comprehensive approach. We’re looking at the whole family and setting goals with the families and kiddos,” Burke said.
Piecing together child care in Oelwein
The Oelwein district maintains a free half-day preschool through the statewide voluntary preschool program and offers a tuition-based full-day preschool.
Little Husky Child Care also is located on school grounds, but families seeking financial assistance need to apply for it themselves, which can be a barrier to services, director Ashley Schwartz said.
The child care center hired three additional staff to accommodate a demand for services this academic year and has an extensive waitlist, which Schwartz attributes to the reduction in Head Start’s services.
The reimbursement the child care center does get through Child Care Assistance is about half of what it gets for families able to pay the tuition rate, Schwartz said.
Little Huskies Child Care operates from 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Classrooms close in Cedar Rapids
Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) this year closed Head Start classrooms in Cedar Rapids at Horizons Family Services and Jane Boyd Community House, said Christi Regan, early childhood programs director at HACAP.
Instead, HACAP entered into a new agreement for the 2025-26 school year with the Cedar Rapids Community School District, offering 32 child care spots at Truman Early Learning Center.
HACAP oversees Head Start in a nine-county area, including Linn and Johnson counties, serving a total of 750 children.
The organization reduced the number of child care spots it offers during the school year by 40. Summer spots were reduced by about 130 in the months of July and August to further save on costs.
Head Start centers in Dubuque and Delaware counties also closed their doors, although both already had struggled to fill open seats, Regan said.
‘Flat’ federal funding
Across the country, Head Start programs faced uncertainty earlier this year when the Trump administration temporarily paused funding and closed regional offices. The pause was eventually rescinded.
“It’s good news that Head Start is not going to go away,” Ferris said.
But federal funding is “flat,” which means programs are serving fewer children and families, Ferris said.
New salary minimums for Head Start employees set by the Office of Head Start — a federal entity that oversees and funds Head Start programs — requires programs to pay educators salaries comparable to their local public preschool teachers, further challenging program budgets.
The Office of Head Start predicted the change could raise most Head Start teacher annual wages by about $10,000. The new salary minimums were effective October 2024.
Even if Iowa’s wrap around child care grant continued, Wilkins said they would have had to reduce Head Start operations in the Northeast Community Action Agency because stagnant federal funding that doesn’t cover the cost of wages, employee benefits or insurance.
“It comes down to serving less children and families,” Ferris said.
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