Without funding during government shutdown, some Head Start programs in Iowa temporarily close, lay off staff

About 140 children and their families in Iowa will no longer have child care beginning Monday as Community Action of Eastern Iowa is forced to halt its Head Start program because the ongoing federal government shutdown has delayed funding.

Community Action of Eastern Iowa also laid off 45 child care workers Friday that serve children ages zero to 5 years in Scott, Clinton and Muscatine counties.

“One thing that’s great about Head Start is it’s not just day care. We provide high quality care and education experiences. Our staff is constantly training and learning. It’s difficult to lose that team right now, and we hope to be able to regroup and reassemble everyone as quickly as possible, and put our centers back together as quickly as we can, but the longer the shutdown goes on, the harder it is,” said Daniel Sheridan, executive director of Community Action of Eastern Iowa.

Head Start is an early childhood education program that serves Iowa’s most vulnerable families at no cost. It supported nearly 7,500 Iowa children in fiscal year 2024.

Community Action of Eastern Iowa’s five-year Head Start grant expired Friday. Approval of a new five-year grant program that leaders expected last month did not happen because of the government shutdown. They applied for the guaranteed grant in August, as is routine.

The grant funding is about $4.6 million annually.

South Central Iowa Community Action Program’s five-year grant also expired Friday, but it is able to stay open until Nov. 14 because of other grant funds.

“Most people are unaware that a family of four living in poverty has an annual income of $32,150 or less,” Sheridan said. ”Most often these are single family homes who cannot access quality care and education by any other means and rely on these programs to maintain employment.“

A mother of four who has two children at a Head Start program in the Community Action of Eastern Iowa region had to back out of a promotion at her job at a jewelry store because she no longer has child care, Sheridan said.

“She’s very concerned about losing her job, and certainly, losing her progress forward,” Sheridan said.

A father whose children are in Head Start recently lost his job related to the government shutdown. Now, he’s losing “this quality experience” for his kids, including two meals and one snack a day they get at Head Start, Sheridan said.

“Kids need consistency. We provide healthy meals every day, routine and structure. Unless they have that stability, it’s hard for them to learn and grow. That is going to be difficult on them developmentally,” Sheridan said.

Another 155 children in Head Start programs through Community Action of Eastern Iowa will continue to be served through the organization’s school partners in November.

There are 92 Head Start spots embedded into preschool classrooms in the Davenport Community School District, said Sarah Ott, director of communications and community relations for the district. The district will maintain those spots traditionally paid for by Head Start through the month of November, she said.

“No one knows how long the shutdown is going to last. Hopefully, it will reopen sometime in November, but I think everyone is living with a series of unknowns. We are using some reserve funding to bridge this gap, so we are taking it month by month,” Ott said.

Ott said when Community Action of Eastern Iowa receives its grant, the district hopes to receive backpay.

“It’s an ever evolving situation, but we just felt like we really wanted to make sure those kiddos had access to early childhood education in our classrooms,” Ott said.

Sheridan said they began contacting staff and families about two weeks ago to inform them that if the government shutdown continued, the Head Start programs would be put on pause. The 45 employees laid off Friday are “outstanding professionals who care deeply about their students and families,” he said.

“Even if the government were to reopen today, we wouldn’t anticipate the Office of Head Start giving us our grant approval as well. There’s going to be some lag time,” Sheridan said.

Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) — whose Head Start program serves 750 children in a nine-county area, including Linn and Johnson counties — is not currently impacted by the government shutdown.

HACAP’s Head Start program is funded through Dec. 31, said Christi Regan, early childhood programs director at HACAP.

“HACAP is taking proactive steps to manage potential impacts and maintain stability of operations for all HACAP programs. We are watching the situation carefully and are keeping our clients, community partners and staff informed and updated on any changes,” Regan said in an email to The Gazette this week.

But funding for four more Head Start programs in Iowa expires Dec. 1, said Lori Ferris, executive director of Head Start Iowa.

“We’re hoping this shutdown will end very soon, and they will not be impacted. However, those four programs are working diligently on contingency plans,” Ferris said.

Ferris said many families enrolled in Head Start also qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The payments for this program were scheduled to be delayed beginning Nov. 1 because of the shutdown, but two federal judges ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP using contingency funds.

“Head Start enables more than 5,000 parents and caregivers to work, go to school, go to job training or participate in the military,“ Ferris said. ”As programs are affected, they are unable to go to work. It’s a challenge to find temporary child care in rural Iowa especially.

“Many families are choosing whether to pay rent or purchase food,” Ferris said.

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