Head Start grant guidance tied to DEI language
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has told Head Start providers to avoid dozens of terms in federal grant applications, including “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people,” a directive that could affect how the early education program describes the demographics it serves.
A coalition of organizations representing Head Start providers and parents said in court filings that the Department of Health and Human Services directed a Head Start director in Wisconsin to remove those and more than a dozen other terms from her application. The filings say she later received a list with nearly 200 words the department discouraged for use, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women.”
The administration’s associates the terms with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which it has vowed to root out across the government. The story reported that plaintiffs’ attorneys and others argue the guidance could cause providers to drop activities they think might fit the administration’s definition of DEI.
Plaintiffs argue Head Start Act requirements are being undermined
The guidance is part of a lawsuit filed in April by parent groups and Head Start associations in Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The plaintiffs sued Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials, alleging the administration is illegally dismantling Head Start.
The filings contend the changes would force providers to alter how they operate in violation of the Head Start Act. Plaintiffs said the act requires directors to provide demographic information about their families, including estimates of the number of pregnant women and children with disabilities. They said the word bans could make that required demographic reporting difficult.
Health and Human Services officials, according to the AP story, declined to comment on pending litigation.
Fear and confusion cited in court filings
Ruth Friedman, who led the Office of Child Care under President Joe Biden, told AP that the guidance could lead Head Start centers to preemptively drop activities that are seen as aligning with the administration’s definition of DEI.
“Grantees are sort of self-selecting out of those activities beforehand because of fear and direction they’re getting from the Office of Head Start that they can’t do these important research-based activities anymore that are important for children’s learning and that are actually required by law,” Friedman said.
The AP story reported that plaintiffs’ attorneys said the anti-DEI guidance has generated confusion for Head Start programs run by nonprofits, schools and government agencies. The plaintiffs’ account also described a dilemma faced by an unnamed Head Start director in Wisconsin, who wrote in a court filing that, “This has put me in an impossible situation.”
The director wrote that if she complied with the Head Start Act and included the banned words, she could lose her grant. She also wrote that if she instead followed the administration’s guidance, she feared penalties for violating the law later.
Native American reservation Head Start described as facing specific changes
The lawsuit also described an example involving a Head Start program on a Native American reservation in Washington state. The AP story said the program was told to cut “all Diversity and Inclusion-related activities,” including staff training on how to support autistic children and children with trauma.
The plaintiffs said officials also told the director she could no longer prioritize tribal members for enrollment, even though the Head Start Act permits such prioritization. The plaintiffs’ filings say the word “Tribal” is among the disfavored terms.
Legal dispute follows earlier grant freeze effort
The AP story said some plaintiffs’ attorneys view the word guidance as part of broader efforts to reduce support for Head Start. It reported that shortly after Trump took office, his budget chief unsuccessfully tried to halt all federal grants, arguing they needed review to root out DEI efforts, though Head Start was quickly reversed out of the freeze.
The story said grantees reported problems drawing down funding in the months that followed, and some briefly closed. It also reported that the Government Accountability Office said the delays violated the Impoundment Control Act, which limits when the president can halt the flow of government funds.