Head Start programs across Ohio are getting grant money from the federal government, a boost after turmoil and funding uncertainty since early 2025.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families announced $225 million in “supplemental awards” for Head Start programs.
A release from the department said the grants were to “strengthen nutrition services, improve facilities, and help programs address critical one-time needs to better serve children and families across the nation.”
“The supplemental investments build on our broader efforts to strengthen Head Start by putting nutrition, health development, and program flexibility back at the center of how we serve children and families,” said Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams in a statement.
Of the total grant monies, $89 million is going to more than 400 Head Start grant recipients, with a total of $2.05 million to be distributed among 17 programs in Ohio.
More than 33,000 children were in enrolled in Head Start programs according to 2024 federal data, with 1,741 children in foster care being served, along with 1,660 homeless children.
Julie Stone, executive director of the Ohio Head Start Association, Inc., said programs in the state had to prove “community need” and demonstrate the funding wouldn’t duplicate existing support.
The funds will go toward things like new kitchen and facility equipment, nutrition curricula, and cooking classes.
“The reinvestment of these funds congressionally allocated to Head Start for the current federal fiscal year are what flexibility is really about – giving Head Start programs the resources and room to meet the real needs of the children and families they serve, built on federal quality guardrails that set a floor while leaving room for local innovation,” Stone said.
The grant amounts range from the largest, more than $400,000 in two grants to the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency, to the smallest, $11,800 going to the Celina City Board of Education.
The money comes while Head Start programs have been struggling after the longest federal government shutdown in American history back in 2025.
During that period, funding lapsed as Congress hit a stalemate on federal spending.
The shutdown affected 65,000 children in 140 programs across the country, including in Ohio. Programs in Scioto County and Highland County had already closed when the shutdown hit.
The payments to U.S. Head Start programs were already behind schedule in 2025, when a government watchdog reported that the Department of Health & Human Services withheld payments from Head Start as the second Trump administration began.
The withholding was a violation of a law regarding the president’s duty to spend congressionally appropriated funds, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The federal government is currently in the process of deciding on proposed changes that would reduce the “federal burden” for Head Start programs, according to the department.
The federal agency estimated the proposed changes would save the government $2.2 billion based on caps to “administrative overhead” and reductions in “compliance-driven activities.”
The changes would eliminate federal requirements regarding curricula, parent committees, “family engagement procedures, and service delivery structures,” the draft rule states.
The proposal is still in its public comment period until Oct. 6.
Advocates have said the changes would also take away things like developmental screenings, teacher qualifications, and mental health services, as well as increasing teacher-child ratios in classrooms.
A letter from national childhood education advocacy groups to the Trump administration said the changes would “gut” the program and remove high-quality standards.
This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.
