Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sees a decades-old federal program that has lifted millions of children out of poverty as part of his political family’s legacy. Kennedy has said he “grew up” around Head Start, which was founded by Kennedy’s uncle Sargent Shriver during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration in the 1960s.
But Donald Trump’s top health official is now planning to overhaul the program by throwing out regulations and policies that have built it up in the years after it was founded more than 60 years ago during Johnson’s war on poverty.
The early education program — which serves roughly 700,000 children, including children experiencing homelessness and in foster care — is planning to eliminate a wide swath of federal rules, shift oversight to state and local governments, and add new dietary and fitness requirements for students enrolled in the program, among other changes.
The proposals would shred dozens of pages of requirements for math and literacy curriculums, class sizes, medical screenings and other guidelines.
Kennedy told reporters Wednesday night that “it’s really important we protect it,” but childhood policy and education experts fear the sweeping proposals could dramatically undermine the program in a pretextual move to gut it entirely.
The program overseen by the Health Departments Administration for Children and Families supports free early education as well as child care, health screenings and other services for children up to five years old from low-income families.
Officials expect the changes to free up more than $2 billion for the program to add space to enroll as many as 268,000 more children, according to Assistant Secretary Alex Adams.
“We built this rule around trusting local leaders to make the decisions that are best for their local communities,” Adams said in a call with reporters announcing the changes. “If we get this proposed rule right, we will grow the number of Head Start spots.”
Adams appeared to dismiss the idea that the changes are a precursor to further cuts, noting that the proposed funding level for the upcoming fiscal year isn’t changing.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray — a former preschool teacher and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions — said the Trump administration has “all but declared war on Head Start and affordable child care in America.”
“For millions of families, Head Start is the first place anyone will check their child’s hearing, vision, or teeth — ignoring the health and safety of these kids today will just cost us more tomorrow,” she said Thursday.
“There’s a reason Head Start tells providers how many toddlers one adult can supervise — it’s how many kids any one teacher can actually keep safe on a busy day,” she added. “This proposed rule also gives programs across the country a green light to slam the door shut on any kid with a disability they decide is too difficult or too much work to take care of. None of this helps families — much of it could lead to catastrophe.”
The proposal is expected to be entered into the Federal Register on Friday, kicking off a 60-day public comment period, after which officials would need to review comment and make adjustments to any final rule changes. That process could take months.
The National Head Start Association is still reviewing the proposal but said the changes amount to the most significant revisions to the program in its 61-year history.
“Fewer rules cannot mean fewer results,” said the organization’s executive director Yasmina Vinci said in a statement Thursday.
“Head Start makes a promise to a family — that their child will be safe, healthy, and ready for school,” she added. “That promise is the same in rural Montana as it is in Baltimore. We will read every page of this proposal against whether it keeps that promise or quietly lets it go.”
The charges follow a drastic series of cuts and other changes to federal child care programs since the president took office last year.
The administration slashed the workforce inside the Office of Head Start and Office of Child Care by roughly 50 percent, and five of its 10 regional offices serving 22 states and five territories have been shuttered.
The administration also is barring undocumented immigrant children from enrolling in the program after interpreting the so-called “public charge” rule to determine eligibility for federal benefits on immigration status, threatening access to Head Start for roughly 50,000 immigrant families nationally.
Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed blueprint for the Trump administration drafted by current and former officials, called for the complete elimination of the program, relying on allegations of fraud and government abuse. The administration appeared to seriously consider the proposal last year, according to a leaked budget draft, though the proposal was withdrawn after immense public backlash.
In a call with reporters, Kennedy said his agency saved Head Start from “draconian cuts” and “preserved” the program.
In April, however, the president said in remarks from the White House that it’s “not possible” for the federal government to continue funding child care because “we’re fighting wars.”
“Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care,” he said he told Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, among the chief architects of Project 2025.
“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care,” Trump said. “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.”
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