Impact Fund & Co-Counsel Seek Injunction to Halt Trump Administration’s Dismantling of Head Start

Megan Flynn, Impact Fund Law Fellow

In May, a coalition of Head Start associations and parent organizations, represented by the Impact Fund, ACLU, Crowell & Moring LLP, and Feldesman Leifer LLP, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attacks on the Head Start program.

The program provides comprehensive early education services to over 800,000 children and families nationwide each year.

Plaintiffs filed their complaint in April in the Western District of Washington alleging that the Trump administration violated the U.S. Constitution, Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and Rehabilitation Act by closing half of Head Start’s regional offices, laying off 60% of the Office of Head Start staff, and banning Head Start providers from participating in anything the Trump administration broadly describes as promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, or accessibility (DEIA). The administration’s actions take direct aim at the core purpose of Head Start to provide comprehensive early child education for diverse communities across the country, and have already led to disruptions in Head Start programs.

For nearly six decades, agencies have provided comprehensive early childhood education, including health, nutrition, and family services.

Our motion asks the Court to prohibit the administration from further implementing the mass layoffs of staff and the ban on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in order to avoid irreparable harm to the hundreds of thousands of families who rely on Head Start programs. 

Head Start was launched in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty and an outgrowth of the Civil Rights Movement. The Head Start Act requires providers to meet the “diverse needs of the population served.” For nearly six decades, agencies have provided comprehensive early childhood education, including health, nutrition, and family services. The program is especially critical for children with disabilities, dual language learners, children experiencing homelessness and in foster care, and Black, Indigenous, Latine, and immigrant children and families.

The Trump administration’s actions threaten the ability of Head Start providers to continue activities central to the mandate of Head Start such as hiring bilingual staff and maintaining inclusive outreach without risking loss of federal funding under the DEIA ban.  Access to guidance from the Office of Head Start has also been severely limited by the drastic cuts to offices and staff.

The Impact Fund is grateful to join with our co-counsel to support the courageous plaintiffs—Head Start associations and parent advocates—in their fight for the future of this vital, community-based program.