5 Things To Know About Head Start

A map and a table in this report contain corrections.

Head Start has a proven track record, preparing nearly 40 million children for kindergarten,¹ improving high school graduation rates, and strengthening children’s overall health, learning, and development.² Yet the program is currently under threat. Since the Trump administration took office in January 2025, several of its actions have disrupted services and caused chaos among the Head Start community. The administration froze federal grant funding within its first two weeks in office,³ has terminated staff from the Office of Head Start,⁴ and has closed five regional offices that oversee Head Start programs in 23 states and five territories.⁵ Most recently, on April 11, 2025, news coverage reported that the Trump administration is considering a budget proposal that would eliminate funding for Head Start altogether,⁶ as proposed in Project 2025.⁷

Preserving Head Start is critical for the families and children who depend on its services and the American economy writ large. This issue brief details five things to know about the Head Start program and the ways it supports families across the country.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Head Start program. Since 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson established the program as part of his “war on poverty,” it has provided comprehensive early childhood development services free of charge to young low-income children and families across the country.⁸ Over the past six decades, Head Start has served nearly 40 million children, the majority of whom are in poverty.⁹ In the past year alone, Head Start served more than 790,000 children, including nearly 556,000 preschool children and more than 235,000 infants and toddlers.¹⁰

Head Start operates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Tribal nations, and several U.S. territories.¹¹ There are approximately 1,600 Head Start grantees, including school districts, local governments, community-based organizations, and faith-based organizations.¹² Public and private nonprofit and for-profit grantees are based in 88 percent of congressional districts and offer Head Start services in local communities across the country.¹³

To search the data directly by state or congressional district, see Table A1.

Although Head Start provides families with a wide range of comprehensive services beyond just child care, its programs are undeniably a critical part of child care supply across the country, especially in rural communities. A 2018 analysis from the Center for American Progress found that Head Start programs represented 22 percent of the overall child care slots in rural communities, including available home-based care.¹⁴ Approximately 46 percent of all funded Head Start slots are in rural congressional districts, compared with 32 percent in suburban districts and 22 percent in urban districts; and 96 percent of rural congressional districts have at least one Head Start grantee, compared with 83 percent of suburban districts and 81 percent of urban districts.¹⁵ Without Head Start, many rural communities would have no licensed child care center.¹⁶

More than half of the U.S. population lives in a child care desert—an area with an insufficient supply of licensed child care.¹⁷ If Head Start is eliminated or its services are severely disrupted, hundreds of thousands of child care slots will be at risk of disappearing and even more communities across the country will lack access to high-quality child care and early learning opportunities.

Head Start is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).¹⁸ The ACF’s Office of Head Start provides funding directly to local grantees—a range of approximately 1,600 nonprofit and for-profit groups, school districts, faith-based institutions, Tribal councils, and other organizations that operate more than 3,300 child care and early learning programs in communities across the country.¹⁹ Head Start’s federal-to-local model allows for programs to be designed and administered locally to meet the unique needs of communities. Programs deliver child development and education services in a range of settings, and many layer federal, state, and local funding to maximize their capacity.²⁰ Local grantees must qualify to receive federal funding, with state Head Start collaboration offices facilitating cooperation between Head Start agencies and other entities that provide services to low-income children.²¹

Local administration allows grantees to have the flexibility to customize services and programs based on the unique needs of the communities they serve. Each grantee must complete a community needs assessment at least once during their five-year grant period to identify gaps in service delivery and inform programmatic decisions.²² Head Start’s family service workers maintain relationships with Head Start families, conduct home visits, and help connect families to services that fit their needs, such as food banks, mental health services, and employment resources.²³ Moreover, parent and family involvement is a key tenet of the Head Start model, ensuring that families are involved in the planning and delivery of the services Head Start provides.²⁴ Parents can even join policy councils and other committees within the grantee’s governance structure.²⁵

Although families across the United States struggle with unaffordable and inaccessible child care supply, infant and toddler child care can be particularly difficult to find. In fact, Center for American Progress analysis from 2020 found that there is only enough licensed child care to serve 23 percent of infants and toddlers.³⁴ Care for this age group is more costly to provide than care for older children due to the lower adult-to-child ratios needed to safely provide the physical care and supervision very young children need.³⁵ Annually, the infant and toddler child care crisis costs the American economy an estimated $122 billion in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue.³⁶

Since 1994, the Early Head Start program has provided critical education, comprehensive child development, and family support services to low-income infants and toddlers and their families,³⁷ serving nearly 218,000 infants and toddlers in 2024.³⁸ The program also provides essential prenatal care and support services to nearly 12,000 expectant parents each year to promote a healthy pregnancy and birth.³⁹

As families across the country struggle to find and afford early learning options that meet their needs and as child care prices continue to rise at untenable rates, Head Start provides critical services free of charge to all families enrolled. The Head Start program also offers targeted support to specific vulnerable populations, including young children with disabilities, Alaska Native and American Indian children, and the children of migrant and seasonal workers.

Children experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, and children in families receiving public assistance are also categorically eligible for Head Start services, which eases some administrative barriers for enrollment.⁴³ More than 90 percent of children and expectant parents who received Head Start services in the 2023–2024 program year were eligible based on their household income being below 130 percent of the poverty threshold or by qualifying for public assistance such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).⁴⁴ Almost 10 percent of children were eligible because they were experiencing homelessness or in foster care.⁴⁵

With a long history of offering comprehensive support services, Head Start programs are uniquely suited to support children with disabilities, who face particular challenges accessing care.⁴⁶ Head Start programs ensure that all children receive vision, hearing, and developmental screenings within 45 days of enrollment, and the program provides free early intervention services to eligible children.⁴⁷ All Head Start programs must ensure that at least 10 percent of their total enrollment is filled by young children eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), regardless of income.⁴⁸ In fiscal year 2023, 14 percent of children enrolled in Head Start qualified for services under IDEA.⁴⁹

The Head Start program also offers targeted support to American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children through the AIAN Head Start program, which launched in the summer of 1965.⁵⁰ Grants for the AIAN program are awarded directly to federally recognized AIAN Tribes or consortia of Tribes to serve children from the Tribe as well as others in their communities, often in rural areas.⁵¹ For the 2023–2024 program year, the AIAN program was funded to enroll nearly 21,000 young children,⁵² serving as a vital resource for Tribal communities to promote child health, learning, and overall well-being. AIAN programs provide culturally responsive education and health services to children and families while playing an important role in preserving traditional language and cultural practices.⁵³ Through the Tribal Colleges and Universities Head Start (TCU-HS) Partnership Program, Head Start also builds the capacity of qualified education staff working in AIAN programs within Tribal nations.⁵⁴

In addition, the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) program works to serve the children and families of migrant and seasonal farmworkers in America’s agriculture industry. For the 2023–2024 program year, the MSHS program was funded to enroll nearly 27,000 children.⁵⁵ Operating across 38 states, MSHS was established to meet the unique needs of migrant farmworker families.⁵⁶ Due to the transient nature of agricultural work and the long hours of migrant farmworkers, it can be difficult to find early care and learning opportunities in a new community.⁵⁷ The federal-to-local model of Head Start allows MSHS to be responsive to the needs of the communities it serves by offering bilingual services, extended hours of care, and a calendar based on harvest seasons.⁵⁸ Without access to MSHS, parents may have no choice but to take their young children into the fields where they work, risking dangerous exposure to pesticides, farm equipment, and extreme heat.⁵⁹

Because Head Start is a federal-to-local program, funding from it may not show up on annual state budgets. However, it does play a significant role in states’ early childhood landscapes by helping states build out more robust preschool programs and early learning systems.

Most states operate their preschool programs as a mixed-delivery model, meaning they provide preschool services in a variety of settings, including public schools, child care programs, and Head Start programs.⁶⁰ For example, West Virginia requires at least 50 percent of state preschool classrooms to be provided through contractual agreements with community partners, including Head Start;⁶¹ in FY 2020, 68 percent ​​of West Virginia’s state preschool classrooms were operated by Head Start programs.⁶² Meanwhile, in Michigan, 31 percent of state preschool programs were provided through contractual agreements with community partners such as Head Start in the 2020-2021 school year.⁶³ And in New York, 56 percent of children are served in classrooms that are operated by community partners such as Head Start.⁶⁴

Analysis from the Center for American Progress has found that a majority of governors highlight early care and education in their State of the State addresses as a priority for their state’s economy and the well-being of children.⁶⁵ Without Head Start and the capacity it allows for states to provide services to their constituents, many governors’ early care and education initiatives would be greatly hindered. States would see their state preschool programs negatively affected along with a decline in the number of children served if Head Start services were disrupted or eliminated.

For six decades, Head Start has provided critical, comprehensive early childhood development services to communities across the nation, creating long-lasting and multigenerational positive impacts that strengthen children’s health, learning, and overall well-being. Disruptions and cuts to program funding and service delivery have wide-reaching effects, threatening some of the most vulnerable children across the United States. Protecting Head Start is therefore critical for the families who depend on its services and the American economy overall.

Table A1 allows users to search directly by state or congressional district to find Head Start data on funded slots, number of grants, and total funding. Data in this table represent the addresses of entities receiving Head Start grants, which may not necessarily reflect all locations where services are provided. For example, Florida’s 6th Congressional District does not display any funding, but there are multiple locations providing program services in this district. Grants funding Head Start programs in Florida’s 6th Congressional District are overseen by grantees located in another district.