A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from purging diversity-related language from Head Start grant applications, ordering the Department of Health and Human Services to halt the word changes and to stop further layoffs in the Office of Head Start.
The order was issued this week in a lawsuit filed in April against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials, and it was published Monday, according to the court order described by the Associated Press.
The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of illegally dismantling the Head Start program by shutting down federal Head Start offices and laying off half the staff. It also challenges the administration’s attempts to bar children who are in the U.S. illegally from Head Start programs and to ban language officials view as suggestive of diversity, equity and inclusion.
In a court filing described by AP, organizations representing Head Start providers and parents said officials told a Head Start director in Wisconsin to remove terms including “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people” from her grant application. The organizations also said the department discouraged nearly 200 words, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women,” and later sent the list to the court.
A Health and Human Services spokesperson told AP he could not comment on the judge’s order. The AP report said the judge—U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez of Seattle—issued a directive that bars the department from cutting any more employees and from punishing Head Start providers if they use the prohibited language.
Head Start, founded roughly six decades ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, is an early education and family support program that serves hundreds of thousands of children from low-income households, foster homes or homelessness. The program is federally funded but is operated by nonprofits, schools and local governments.
Joel Ryan, who leads the Washington State Head Start & Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, said the order halts an attack on Head Start centers. “When a Head Start program has their funding withheld because of their efforts to provide effective education to children with autism, serve tribal members on a reservation, or treat all families with respect, it is an attack on the fundamental promise of the Head Start program,” Ryan said, according to the AP report.
The AP report said the directive on forbidden words created confusion for Head Start directors, who must describe how they will use the money in grant applications and must provide demographic information about the families they serve. A director in Washington state, the report said, told the court in a filing that the guidance led her to cancel staff training on how to support children with autism and children with trauma.