A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s plan to freeze trillions of dollars in federal funding. However, dozens of Head Start programs say they still can’t access their money, according to the National Head Start Association.
Head Start is a federal program that helps young children from low-income families with childcare and early education.
According to NBC News, the White House said Head Start programs should not be impacted by any funding freezes. Yet, more than 45 programs serving 20-thousand students nationwide reported experiencing funding delays this week.
Are any Bay Area Head Start programs impacted by this problem?
The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit called around to different local organizations Wednesday. The non-profit Unity Council has Head Starts program in Oakland and Concord. They said they and other organizations experienced a one-day funding freeze that did not impact programs but created significant panic.
“We had just received a $2.5 million contract from the federal government to expand to Contra Costa County. And so, as you can imagine, this really created a lot of fear and anxiety,” Caheri Gutierrez, the Unity Council’s director of communications.
Gutierrez said their programs have regained access to those previously approved federal funds, but they are scrambling to look for other funding sources just in case.
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“If this was what we experienced at the beginning of February, who knows what can happen throughout the entire four years that [President Trump] is in office,” she said. “His brand is just very targeted around not prioritizing communities of color, communities from underserved background…while this was just a scare, we are preparing for the worst.”
NBC Bay Area reached out to the US Department of Health and Human Services, that oversees Head Start, asking about the reported funding delays and one day issue experienced in the Bay Area. The Department hasn’t responded yet to our inquiry.
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