Across WA, Head Start Programs Serving Over 3,000 Pre-K Students Threatened By Looming Nov. 1 Shutdown Deadline

Across WA, Head Start Programs Serving Over 3,000 Pre-K Students Threatened By Looming Nov. 1 Shutdown Deadline

Head Start relies on federal support to provide free childcare, health, & nutrition services to 15k kids across the state - but due to the shutdown, grant funding is about to run out for around 1/5 of them Cantwell: "For many of those parents, losing childcare means missing work."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Starting Saturday, Nov. 1, nine Head Start programs in the State of Washington serving 3,177 kids between the ages of 3 and 5 years old will run out of government funding due to the ongoing government shutdown, forcing the programs to scale back or even close with little or no warning for the families that rely on them.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement:

"Across the State of Washington, Head Start offers essential free childcare, nutrition, and health care services to 15,000 Pre-K kids. But the ongoing government shutdown means that a portion of these programs will lose federal support as early as next week - yanking a crucial piece out of the delicate puzzle that working parents rely on with little warning and no alternatives. For many of those parents, losing childcare means missing work. We must immediately negotiate a consensus solution to improve healthcare affordability so we can reopen the government and resume funding for Head Start programs."

The following Head Start programs rely on federal grants scheduled to run out on Nov. 1:

Head Start funding is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In FY 2024, the State of Washington received $189.4 million to run programs that serve more than 15,000 pre-K children. The Head Start program has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965.

In May, Sen. Cantwell joined the entire Senate Democratic caucus in sending an open letter to the American public warning that President Donald Trump's so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill," if passed, would cut funding for safety net programs like Head Start to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

"We write to make our position on this legislation perfectly clear: Congress should not give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans by ripping away programs that almost 25 million Americans - close to 50% of whom are children - rely on for basic needs," the Senators wrote to the American public.

Nevertheless, Republicans continue to push the bill. It ultimately passed the Senate and the House by just one vote in each chamber, with the Vice President repeatedly casting tie-breaking votes to advance the bill in the Senate before President Trump signed it into law on July 4. Now, the consequences of that partisan law are impacting American families.

Last week, Sen. Cantwell also joined 45 Senate Democrats in sending a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to release the billions of dollars at its disposal to ensure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits continue in November, as it has authority to do. As of April 2025, 906,414 Washingtonians were enrolled in SNAP. Congressional Republicans have exacerbated the food security crisis in recent months. President Trump's budget bill changed work requirements for Americans to receive SNAP benefits, which is estimated to kick more than 2 million Americans off of food assistance, including 170,000 residents in Washington state.