Nearly 400 Wisconsin children will lose Head Start in November with government shut down

Nearly 400 Wisconsin children will lose access to Head Start services starting next month if the government shutdown continues. 

If the shutdown extends to December, more than 1,000 more could lose services.

The  Southwest Community Action Program will close its nine preschool/Head Start classrooms on Monday, said Jennie Mauer, executive director of the Wisconsin Head Start Association.

The group provides services to low-income families in Grant, Green, Iowa, Lafayette and Richland counties.

The  Sheboygan Human Rights Association will be able to maintain services through mid-November by using Head Start’s state supplement, but then will likely have to suspend its services, Mauer said. 

Collectively, these programs serve 391 children.

If federal payments are not restored by December, three more Wisconsin Head Start contracts will be affected, which provide services to about 1,100 children, Mauer said.

The Wisconsin Head Start program serves between 13,000 and 16,000 families per year.

“It’s really a stressful situation, because there is no end in sight here,” Mauer said.

Head Start and Early Head Start are federal programs for children under the age of 5 from low-income families. Programs include child care, health, dental, mental health and disabilities support. 

To be eligible for the program a family must be at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty line. For a family of four, a household income under $41,795 meets that threshold.

Families with children experiencing homelessness, in foster care or who receive public assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are eligible regardless of income.

“In Wisconsin, we know that the majority of our Head Start families are working in our communities, and when parents don’t have safe child care, they struggle to get to work,” Mauer said. “The whole community and our local economy suffers. We’re all connected. These Head Start programs are cornerstones of their local communities — helping folks get to work, employing people and spending money with local trades.”

The Office of Head Start can’t issue funding until Congress passes a spending bill. Nationally, 130 Head Start programs collectively serving over 56,000 children are due to receive Head Start grants on Nov. 1.

Theresa Christen-Liebig, executive director of the Sheboygan Human Rights Association, said the group is doing everything it can to serve children during the shutdown, but she fears the situation is becoming “hopeless.” 

“Even with tremendous support from our community partners, our ability to keep providing full services to all of our 172 children appears to be ending mid-November,” Christen-Liebig said. “After that, we may only be able to provide limited services to children supported by our 4K partnership. This gap will hurt our staff, our families and most of all, it will hurt the children.”

Since January, Head Start has been under attack, including the closure of regional offices and an attempt by the Trump administration to ban families in the country without legal permission.

In September, a federal judge blocked that directive. 

Mauer said she expects the government will appeal the ruling, but believes Head Start and the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit, have a strong case.

She said what’s on her mind now are the families that will lose benefits if the shutdown continues.

Many of the families who rely on Head Start also receive SNAP benefits set to run out on Friday.

The Trump administration says it will not use emergency funds to send out federal food aid at the beginning of November, blaming Democrats for not working to reopen the government.

“It’s all connected,” Mauer said. “This shutdown battle has really pitted one component of government services against another component of government services. But that’s not how families operate in the context of community, and we know that everybody’s got to eat and everybody’s got to go to work.”