In Greater Minnesota, some Head Start early education program centers are being forced to rely on state funding, as federal funding lags amidst the government shutdown. 

Head Start, a nationwide early childhood education program celebrating its 60th anniversary, serves children from six weeks to 5 years old coming from families living below the poverty line. 

The program provides free education, meals and health support. Each family works with a parent-child advocate who helps connect them with food, housing and employment resources.

Every school day, colorful buses line the streets outside all 11 early education Head Start centers across Hennepin County.

“These colorful buses you see riding around are picking children up from their door, bringing them to a safe space where they’re learning, they’re eating, they’re getting their health needs met,” said Rico Alexander, executive director of Parents in Community Action, the non-profit that operates Hennepin County’s Head Start centers.

Funding for Head Start programs is distributed at different times throughout the year, said Kraig Gratke, executive director of the Minnesota Head Start Association. As the federal government shutdown continues nationwide, Head Start centers in over 40 states have not received their federal funding, forcing some to close their doors.

Four Minnesota grantees did not receive their scheduled federal funds this month. Those four grantees serve roughly 1,300 children and employ 240 staff members. 

About 85 percent of Minnesota’s Head Start budget is federally funded, with the remaining 15 percent coming from the state.

Gratke said the November grantees will likely be able to operate for six to eight weeks using state-allocated funds. 

Alexander said that when Head Start programs close, it leaves a gap not only in the services vulnerable families receive, but in the economic growth Head Start drives through its purchases to vendors.

“I just think it’s unfortunate we can find the money for things we need to find money for,” Alexander said. “When COVID hit, we found trillions of dollars, so it’s all politics, and it’s just not kind. Our job is to really advocate and fight for resources for our families.”

Meeting Families’ Needs Beyond the Classroom

Every child in Head Start programs receives two to three meals during the school day, depending on whether they are in a split-day or full-day program. The full-day program runs from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. to support parents who work or attend school. 

Through Project Secure, Minneapolis Head Start centers enroll children living in homeless shelters or hotels.

“We have really partnered with organizations so we can meet the needs of the insecurity that our families are facing, food, housing issues and mental health crises,” Alexander said.

Around a third of the 1,600 Head Start families Hennepin County serves receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, said Head Start Director Monshari Chandler. Around 85 percent of that third make $15,000 a year or less. 

Roughly half of the Head Start families in Hennepin County utilize the Women, Infants, and Children program, which also faces funding uncertainty in next year’s federal budget.

In October, the federal government announced that SNAP benefits would not be distributed this November due to the ongoing government shutdown. SNAP benefits remain the subject of a legal battle. 

The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families announced Friday that it will distribute full SNAP benefits. 

Many states began distributing SNAP benefits on Saturday, reported PBS. Later that day, the U.S Department of Agriculture ordered states to undo the payments.

The Head Start Donald M. Fraser Early Childhood Family Development Center in North Minneapolis — the second largest in Hennepin County, serving about 350 children — expanded its food resources this November, Chandler said. The center added more proteins and food to its menu and is implementing two more food shelves, according to Chandler. 

Chandler said the centers address the children’s health needs beyond food.

Within 45 days of enrollment, children receive developmental screenings that help teachers tailor support and identify health issues such as vision problems, cavities and allergies.

“The curriculum operates from the belief that children learn at their own pace, and focuses on the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of the child,” Chandler said. 

The centers focus on a whole family’s needs, offering a parent training program with five different tracks meant to open doors to entry-level jobs, Chandler said. Head Start also pays for the secondary education of any staff member who wishes to obtain a degree. About half of the Head Start staff in Hennepin County are former parents. 

Chandler and three of her children were once enrolled in the program. She was initially hired on as a teacher’s aide and has stayed with Head Start for over a decade. 

“I think every one of us staff kind of has a similar story about the support and resources that we received here as parents that help to propel us to the next stage of our lives,” Chandler said.

Funding uncertainties 

In Minnesota, Head Start currently has the capacity to serve about seven percent of the children eligible for the program from ages six weeks to three years old, Alexander said.

“If the government finally gets funded and they just flat fund us, that’s in essence a cut, because of inflation. Everything’s going up,” Alexander said.

The federal funding allocation for Head Start in the 2026 budget remains at a standstill amongst the government shutdown. The House maintained fiscal 2024 funding levels, but the Senate proposed an $85 million increase.

“It’s been an interesting year for us,” Gratke said. 

In President Donald Trump’s first leaked proposed budget in April, he allocated no federal funding to Head Start for 2025, Gratke said. After Head Start rallied, Trump eventually funded the program at 2024 funding levels.

Before the flat funding this year, Hennepin County Head Start centers already struggled to increase teachers’ salaries to school districts with the amount of funding available.

Chandler said centers began losing teachers in 2023. Ultimately, centers in Hennepin County were forced to cut around 550 child enrollment slots to raise teacher salaries. 

Gratke said it is encouraging to see the bipartisan support Head Start gets.

“I’m not going to say it’s not rough because it is. It is very rough right now with what’s going on. 

But there are signs that folks are still really interested in Head Start,” Gratke said. “We’re committed to the kind of services that we are currently providing.”

When Marguerite “Dutches” Anderson, director of the Fraser North Minneapolis Center, thinks of the community at Head Start, she says she thinks of family. 

“I think about parents,” Anderson said. “When we can see in their faces that they might be unhappy, we stop them and we talk to them. We’re not just overlooking them as if they’re just here and there and coming and going. We really, truly are a family.”

Anderson said Head Start is a community of unity and mutual support.

“We, as a Head Start family, have a hard time understanding the world and what it does to people because they’re not looking at it as we’re all in this together,” Anderson said. “You can’t have the haves and the have-nots.”