Some Head Start programs are closing as the government shutdown drags into another month — the longest-recorded government stalemate in U.S. history.
Head Start was created 60 years ago as a social safety net to help poor children and families. The federal government provides 80 percent of the funds needed to run a Head Start program. The remaining 20 percent comes from the private sector, which has kept some afloat without additional government funds.
How long some of these programs can hang on remains to the seen. More than 40,000 Florida children and families depend on for early childhood education, childcare and wellness services Head Start and Early Head Start provides.
As of Wednesday, more than a dozen Head Start centers across Florida no longer have the funds to stay open. So far that has left more than 2,400 children and families in the lurch, said Wanda Minick the executive director of the Florida Head Start Association.
Another eight centers serving 370 children and their families could close if funding is not restored by November’s end, she said.
This reality of a pro-longed shuttered government can be devastating to families, she said.
"Head Start serves as a lifeline in the state," she said. "...If Congress can't come to a resolution, and the programs are forced to close their doors, [Congress] is leaving children and families to make some tough decisions."
Decisions can mean finding a suitable and safe place for children to stay when a parent is working one of more jobs or leaving the workforce all together.
Not all Head Start programs are funded on an October 1 to September 30 cycle — as many government programs are. They are staggered depending on the timeline of the grant. Those programs that have already closed had been depending on an additional year of funding beginning in October or November.
"So Congress needs to get to work and open the government and pass a budget," Minick said.
Head Start enrollment is based on income. So it is highly likely many of the families with children in Head Start are also seeing a reduction in their federal government-funded food assistance known as SNAP as well as higher health care premiums — or a cut to health care services.
"We know that, unfortunately, sometimes when kids come to the Head Start program, this is, this may be, the only hot meal that they receive throughout their day," Minick said.
Minick said Head Start programs have already closed in Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee, Hardee, Polk, Jefferson and Franklin counties.
Programs at risk of closing by the end of November are in Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwanee counties.
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