The Head Start program provides free early childhood education and support for low-income families. The federal government funds the program through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Project 2025 proposed eliminating the program.
While Head Start still exists, regional offices have closed and programs have run into issues receiving their funding. We’ll learn more about what the program looks like now from Nancy Perin, the executive director of the Oregon Head Start Association.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Project 2025 proposed eliminating Head Start, the free early childhood program for low-income families. President Trump has not gone that far. He didn’t do so in his proposed budget, but five regional offices, including the one that served Oregon and Southwest Washington, were recently closed. What’s more, a number of Head Start programs in Oregon have had serious questions recently about whether they would get federal funding.
Nancy Perin is the executive director of the Oregon Head Start Association. She joins us now with more details. It’s great to have you on the show.
Nancy Perin: Hi, Dave, thank you. And yeah, good afternoon and thanks for having me.
Miller: Good afternoon to you. I want to start with Southern Oregon. Last month there was an article in the Rogue Valley Times about funding that had not been coming through to the program that serves Jackson and Josephine Counties. I should note that the money now has been promised, but what had the situation been?
Perin: Well, I think what happened was, it goes back to early on when there was a federal freeze, started in January 27, about a week after the inauguration, and Head Start was included in a federal grant freeze. And then that was rescinded for Head Start, but it kind of threw into flux the whole program management system that federal-funded programs have to use in order to access their funds. In Southern Oregon’s case, their grant year runs from November through the end of October. So in early April, they were expecting to get the second half, their six-month drawdown, of the money that they were going to need to continue out through the rest of their grant year. And that money they had been putting in their request for, they weren’t getting any notice of award and they were getting a little panicked.
They’re part of a union, so they had to start notifying their union and their staff that there were possible classroom closures. They were having to let parents know that the following week there may not be a Head Start program for the program that was federally-funded. Also, about half of the program is state-funded. So they had to make a hard decision as to which classrooms were federally-funded, and which staff were and which ones weren’t.
So they had already gotten in touch with Representative Cliff Bentz, and Senators Merkley and Wyden. They were working on it from their end. I was able to get them in touch with the individual who used to work at the office of Head Start back in Washington D.C. And between all of these individuals, they were able to work their magic. Right at the last moment, that Friday before the director was going to have to shut down the program, she got her notification that money was pending in her bank account at the Southern Oregon program. And she was able to keep things on the wheel, so to speak.
Miller: Like so many conversations we’ve had on this show, and I suppose a lot of other people have been having over the last five or six months, it still makes me wonder if what we’re talking about here is a bureaucratic delay, a bureaucratic mess up, or an intended cut that was prevented because of an outcry?
Perin: I think it’s probably a little bit of both. Those who’ve gotten involved … So early on, when Head Start funding cut freeze was rescinded, programs were then able to start getting back into what they call the PMS system. It took them a while, because it was a lot of chaos. There were other types of agencies also trying to get into that system to get their funding. And once that kind of smoothed out they started getting notification, when they put in for their drawdowns, from DOGE, asking for further justification. How they were going to spend the money and what they were going to do with it. So that created a little bit of upheaval with programs because they had to … one, what is the ulterior motive of this? Or, am I going to write the wrong thing in my response that’s going to stop me from being able to access my funding? That took a while for that to smooth itself out.
I think programs feel a lot of uncertainty, because we were in Project 2025 for Head Start to be eliminated, so there’s a little bit of uneasiness, even though we know that we’ve heard from Secretary Kennedy that Head Start is going to be preserved. And we are hopeful that when the actual budget comes out … The skinny budget didn’t call for the elimination of Head Start, so we’re not sure what the funding will look like when the final budget comes out. But we’re hopeful that we will have Head Start preserved at this point. It’s been a little bit of both, to be honest with you.
Miller: But meanwhile, I’m curious to get your thoughts on the implications of cuts that have happened. Those five regional Head Start offices, half of the previous total that were closed, include the ones in Seattle and San Francisco. What do these regional offices do?
Perin: These regional offices are the touch points for the Head Start programs. Every year they need to write for continuation of their funding, so they write their grant. In our case here in Oregon, the grant is sent to their program specialist who works out of the Seattle office. And they review that grant, they look at the training and technical assistance plan that’s been submitted. They call, they ask questions, they verify information. Then they’re the ones who then send it on through to be processed so that funding will flow.
They need to do that three months prior to the start of their grant year. So, say a program … like we’ll start with a new grant year, we have a program that’s gonna start actually June 1 with new funding. So when they sent their grant in three months ago, that would have been in, what – I’m trying to think back – in February, March. So they were thinking that the regional office, their program specialist, would see that grant.
Right now, we don’t know where that grant is, who’s been reviewing it, who’s been asking the questions that maybe go around it. And they are actually sitting waiting. Here we are, 48 hours away from the end of the month, more or less, and they don’t have their money yet or have been notified that they’re going to have their money to operate when they open the doors on June 2.
So those people at the Seattle office were very instrumental in keeping the process moving along [and] the train on track, so to speak. And on April 1, those individuals went to work in Seattle and they were locked out. The access cards wouldn’t let them in ...
Miller: Oregon Head Start, local people who run programs for Head Start all around the state, do they know who to get in touch with, I guess it’s now in Denver, to ask these questions?
Perin: Some of them, I’ve heard, have been notified by a few individuals that work out of the Denver office. Denver office was Region 8. We were in what was called Region 10. So here on the West Coast, [there was] Region 9, which is California, Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada. And then here up in the Northwest, it was our four states in Region 10. We’ve been combined in with Region 8 and then also the Pacific Islands were all brought in too.
So there’s 13 states now, based out of Denver. That’s a tremendous amount of programs. And then they don’t have the staffing at the regional office in Denver to be able to contact and work with the programs. They don’t know them, they don’t have the history with them. So things are just really in flux right now.
Miller: We have about two minutes left. The Republican budget bill, that narrowly passed the House recently, would lead to major reductions in federal Medicaid money in states who choose to spend their own state funds for health care for people who are undocumented. Is there any equivalent that’s possible for Head Start?
Perin: I’m not sure of your question, Dave.
Miller: I’m wondering if people who are undocumented families could lose out on Head Start benefits as a result of new policy or budget decisions.
Perin: Well, in Head Start, we don’t ask as to whether the children are documented or not, or the families. We serve anyone that comes through the doors that meet the guidelines for Head Start. We don’t have the funds to pick up SNAP or Medicaid in that respect if they were to lose that funding here in Oregon. We usually send them to those resources and get them signed up for those services. So, at this point, I’m not sure what’s been decided at the state level, how they’re going to [inaudible], if they need to backfill for those cuts.
Miller: Nancy Perin, thanks very much for your time.
Perin: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.
Miller: Nancy Perin is the executive director of the Head Start Association of Oregon.
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