Layoffs in the Office of Head Start, a federal early childhood education program for low-income families, are leaving local child care providers feeling untethered.
“It's like cutting off the head and neck of us. We're just the arms sort of dangling about," said Alexis Aviña, the chief early childhood education officer at the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee on Anti-Poverty of San Diego County (MAAC).
Five regional Head Start offices closed last week, according to the National Head Start Association. Now, providers like MAAC don’t know who will answer the phone when they call to ask about their grants, staffing ratios and other regulations.
“Our grant manager was a program specialist in San Francisco. He's not there,” Aviña said. “I know there are a handful of issues that we had sent out early Monday morning, early Tuesday morning that have gone unresponded to.”
MAAC has more than a dozen child care centers in San Diego County. They’re almost entirely funded through Head Start. Aviña said she’s worried the federal layoffs could delay providers’ access to funding.
“It's more than just a preschool,” Aviña said. “We're offering essential resources to break the cycles of poverty.”
Those resources include meals, developmental screenings, home visits and job training for parents.
MAAC uses its own funds to pay its staff. Typically, they’re reimbursed within a few days.
“If we submit our payment for our reimbursement and no one responds for one pay period, and two pay periods, and three pay periods and four pay periods, we're now out of pocket multiple pay periods without anyone answering our emails or reimbursing us,” Aviña said.
“For smaller organizations that maybe don't have a healthy reserve, this could potentially close them down.”
The Head Start cuts were part of layoffs across the Department of Health and Human Services. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote on social media that the “overhaul is about realigning (the department) with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and dozens of other senators condemned the staff cuts in a letter to Secretary Kennedy.
“This attack on employees at a time when children, families, child care providers, and early educators are relying on critical early childhood programs undermines the Department’s role in administering and conducting oversight of early childhood programs, including Head Start programs and child care assistance for working-class families across the country,” they wrote.
In January, the Trump administration froze federal grants. A judge blocked the move, but several Head Start providers still had trouble accessing funds.
Aviña said MAAC is applying for other grants, reaching out to donors and preparing for worst-case scenarios when it comes to federal funding.
“We keep our doors open, we keep doing the best that we can,” she said. “But it places a burden on our own team on the ground.”
