Head Start programs in two Vermont regions may face temporary closure amid federal shutdown

Read the full article at vtdigger.org. Below is an excerpt.

In Washington, Democrats and national advocates are warning about the growing consequences that the government shutdown will have on Head Start programs across the country.

On Saturday, another wave of funding lapses is set to affect nearly 60,000 more children across 41 states, according to the National Head Start Association.

In Vermont, none of the state’s seven Head Start programs will need to shutter in November, according to Christy Swenson, the Head Start Director at Capstone Community Action and board chair of the Vermont Head Start Association.

However, several will face temporary closure in early December if the shutdown wears on, Swenson said. Leaders of programs serving two Vermont regions — the Champlain Valley and the Northeast Kingdom — anticipate running out of federal funds by then, they said.

The federal Head Start program, which provides child care and nutritious meals to more than 700,000 children across the country, and around 1,250 in Vermont, has already faced funding lapses that forced some locations in other states to close completely and others to look for interim funding elsewhere.

Head Start, together with Early Head Start, aims to serve children from birth to age 5 living in foster care or households with incomes below the federal poverty line, or who are experiencing homelessness. In Vermont, almost one-fifth of children enrolled are unhoused or experiencing housing insecurity, according to an analysis of federal data by a national advocacy group.

“It’s an absolute tragedy,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, said about the upcoming lapses. “And it is beyond comprehension that you have a Republican House, which is now in its fifth week of vacation. Maybe they want to come to work and help us resolve this crisis.”

Head Start is funded on annual cycles, which have starting dates that vary from program to program, Swenson said. Once the commitment is renewed, the process of “drawing down” federal funding as it becomes necessary is not affected by the shutdown, she added.

Champlain Valley Head Start in Burlington is only guaranteed funding through Nov. 1, which means their grant ends on Saturday, Sandra Graves, the program’s director, said on Friday. Her program would be able to stay open through November under a continued shutdown, although only by exhausting its financial reserves, she said.

The program, which is operated by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, serves Chittenden, Addison, Franklin, and Grand Isle counties. Graves’ staff of 63 provides care and programs to 233 enrolled children and their families, she said.

On Dec. 5, in the absence of federal funding or other support, all of the program’s offerings will need to pause, and all staff will be furloughed, Graves said. The annual grant from the federal Office of Head Start is roughly $7.2 million, she said, which represents the program’s entire operating budget save two small state-level grants.

The Head Start program run by Northeast Kingdom Community Action, or NEKCA, has a Dec. 1 funding cycle, but does not possess the financial cushion that Champlain Valley has available, said NEKCA Executive Director Jenna O’Farrell. The program may be able to keep running for a short time after Dec. 1 with a fraction of its previous capacity, but O’Farrell said that isn’t guaranteed.

That program operates eight physical locations across the rural Northeast Kingdom. It serves 160 children and their families, and employs 78 staff members.

Champlain Valley Head Start filed its annual federal funding application on time in August, Graves said. Ordinarily, the request should have been approved in September. But the Office of Head Start has seen cuts to staffing under the Trump administration, and every aspect of Graves’ interaction with federal officials has slowed, she said.

Even once the government opens, Graves has been told her organization’s funding approval might take several weeks. It may be hard to avoid the Dec. 5 deadline even if the shutdown ends in mid-November, she said.

Graves has not heard from the federal Office of Head Start since the shutdown began. Even though reimbursement for stopgap measures would be customary, she said recent federal actions toward other service programs have made her nervous.

The program’s closure would be a “huge, huge loss for our children and families,” Graves said. Apart from being a source of food and services for kids, Champlain Valley Head Start provides child care that allows parents to stay in the workforce, Graves added.

Graves has applied for temporary state funding from the Vermont Emergency Board, which on Wednesday approved a state-funded stopgap for lost federal food assistance. Champlain Valley Head Start will need about $1 million to remain stable over the next two months, Graves said.

O’Farrell said she too plans to apply for funding from the state’s Emergency Board. NEKCA’s Head Start program’s monthly expenses total roughly $450,000.

A closure would cause an “immediate, severe impact on low-income families across our service area,” O’Farrell said.