A Critical Win for Head Start’s Children and Families
Fawn Rajbhandari-Korr, Training Director and Senior Counsel
Earlier this month, the Impact Fund and co-counsel including the ACLU won a court order on behalf of Plaintiff Head Start associations and parents’ groups protecting the Head Start program from attacks by the Trump administration. Head Start provides early education, health services, and family support to more than 800,000 children from low-income families, children with disabilities, children learning English, Native American children, and others. The court’s order blocks the Trump administration from cutting Head Start staff and offices, limiting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility activities within the program, and putting the program’s federal funding at risk.
In mid-March 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services told Head Start programs they could not use federal funds for “activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, or accessibility,” and required them to sign paperwork agreeing to the new condition or risk losing funding. In April 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services then closed half of Head Start’s regional offices and laid off about 60 percent of the Office of Head Start staff, cutting off critical support for programs nationwide. The court concluded that these agency actions directly conflicted with the requirements of the Head Start Act, and placed Head Start programs in an impossible position of choosing between following the law and keeping their doors open.
Over 800,000 children rely on Head Start programs.
The court’s January 2026 ruling builds on an earlier win in the case. In September 2025, the same court entered an order blocking a Department of Health and Human Services rule that would have excluded immigrant families from Head Start for the first time since the program began in 1965. That order is still in place and continues to protect immigrant families’ access to Head Start while the case moves forward.
Together, these two victories keep Head Start programs running as Congress intended and send a clear message that the Trump administration cannot unilaterally dismantle Head Start. These injunctions ensure that children and families across the country will continue to receive the critical education and social services they depend on.
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