Trump’s Plans for Head Start Could Leave Kids Behind

The early education, nutrition, and health program is a lifeline for poor kids. The Department of Health and Human Services wants to erase its standards.

The Trump administration announced on Thursday plans to overhaul Head Start, the early education, nutrition, and health program which serves hundreds of thousands of low-income children. The proposed rule to rescind the majority of the program’s standards of care could have far-reaching effects for the nation’s most vulnerable families.

Current regulations for Head Start include more than 100 pages of specific requirements for research-backed school curricula, household visits, child-to-teacher ratios, and nutrition. These standards are expansive: For example, some regulations require childcare programs to serve snacks that satisfy a portion of a child’s daily nutritional needs, to provide developmental and medical screenings, and to assist parents of children with disabilities in obtaining adequate resources and care.

Experts worry that the removal of these standards will hinder early childhood development among Head Start participants, rather than introduce efficiency. Instead of looking to federal guidelines, around 1,600 Head Start operators—which include public schools and nonprofits—will now have to rely on state and local licensing requirements, which can be more varied—and more lax.

“[Head Start is] a program whose quality standards have really raised the bar for the way in which children receive early education across the board,” said Melissa Boteach, the chief policy officer at Zero to Three, an advocacy organization that focuses on early childhood development. “Now we’re talking about dramatically rolling those back in ways that will undermine the quality of the services and access to the services.”

Under current federal standards, for example, a maximum of four children under three years old can be cared for by one provider. Those Head Start teachers must meet coursework requirements in childhood education. The notice for the proposed rule argues that “any steps towards lower ratios will lead to lower cost per child costs, which will improve program efficiency.” However, state regulations on class size vary, as do the licensing requirements for teachers, meaning that the number of children to one teacher will be different across the country.

“There is a lot of variability across........

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