Protect Head Start

from Reduced Services, Larger Class Sizes and Fewer Staff

 
 

What’s Happening

A sweeping federal proposal would gut standards protecting children and families in Head Start. The proposed rule would weaken many of the standards that ensure families can count on these critical services and create new barriers for children and families Head Start serves.

As an operator of four Head Start centers, we are urging Somerville and Cambridge families, educators, providers and advocates to speak out against the proposed changes during the federal public comment period, which runs through October 6.

How You Can Help

Submit comments during the federal public comment period by October 6, 2026.

Use this template to get started. In your comments, describe how the proposed changes would affect children, families, educators and Head Start programs in our communities.

Submit Comment

Learn More About How The Proposed Changes Weaken Head Start

The proposed rule would weaken the quality of education and care by:

  • Eliminating federal limits on class sizes and teacher-child ratios, reducing individualized attention and undermining child development and safety.

  • Removing federal teaching and learning standards, including specific requirements for curriculum implementation and teacher training.

  • Removing critical federal health and safety protections, including standards against harmful practices such as seclusion and requirements to supervise children at all times.

The proposed rule would make it harder for families and programs to maintain the services they rely on by:

  • Putting working families at risk of losing hours of care by eliminating requirements for the length of the Head Start day and year, potentially leaving parents to find and pay for alternative child care or miss work.

  • Reducing parents’ role in shaping their local Head Start program by weakening their role in program development and decisions about curriculum, health, nutrition and other policies.

  • Cutting the allowable administrative cost cap from 15 percent to 5 percent, a level only a small fraction of Head Start programs currently meet.

  • Disproportionately harming rural Head Start programs, which face higher operating costs and often serve families with few other early education, child care and health service options.

It would also create new barriers and eliminate services for children and families by:

  • Requiring English-only instruction, with limited exceptions, restricting support for dual language learners and weakening communication with families who speak languages other than English. In the last program year, 64 percent of children in Massachusetts Head Start programs were identified as dual language learners.

  • Making it harder for families experiencing homelessness to enroll by ending self-attestation and requiring documentation that can be difficult for families without shelter placements to obtain. In the last program year, 16 percent of children enrolled in Head Start in Massachusetts experienced homelessness.

  • Removing critical services for children with disabilities and behavioral challenges, including timely developmental screenings and follow-up supports. In the last program year, 12 percent of preschool children in Massachusetts Head Start programs had an IEP, with additional children awaiting diagnoses or experiencing developmental delays.

  • Weakening requirements for services to pregnant women, new mothers and newborns, new mothers and newborns, including newborn health and postpartum depression screenings.

Taken together, these changes would eliminate many of the standards that guarantee families a consistent baseline of high-quality services from Head Start programs. Even in Massachusetts, which has strong early education standards, eliminating federal Head Start requirements could put critical services and supports at risk. Many Massachusetts Head Start programs also participate in the state’s Child Care Financial Assistance programs, allowing state and federal funding to be blended to serve children together. As a result, changes that weaken Head Start could have ripple effects across Massachusetts’ broader early education and child care system.