Head Start preschools serving thousands of children around the country could be at risk of closing because they remain locked out of their federal funding, the Associated Press reports.
Administrators around the country last week discovered they were locked out of a government website used to access grant funding for Head Start, an early education program that serves some of the nation’s neediest families and children. Medicaid administrators reported similar problems.
In Wisconsin, the National Centers for Learning Excellence, which serves more than 200 children and their families, shut down for a week and laid off staff because it could not access its funding. It was set to reopen Wednesday morning, a day after the money materialized. At least a dozen other grant recipients in Wisconsin could not access their funds.
The delays can be catastrophic for Head Start operations, many of which are fully funded by federal money that is doled out on a weekly or biweekly basis.
The disruption coincided with a far-reaching directive from the Trump administration to halt federal grants, which sparked chaos throughout the federal government. The White House later clarified that the order was not supposed to include Head Start and Medicaid.
