A U.S. judge has stepped in to pause the broad changes the Trump administration sought to impose on Head Start, blocking efforts to strip grant applications of language tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion and halting further staff cuts within the federal office that oversees the program.
The ruling, issued this week by U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez of Seattle, also prevents the Department of Health and Human Services from penalizing Head Start providers for using terms the administration had flagged as unacceptable. The order was made public on Monday.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in April against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other federal officials. The plaintiffs accuse the administration of unlawfully gutting Head Start by closing regional offices and laying off roughly half of the program’s federal workforce. The suit also challenges attempts to exclude children who are in the country illegally from Head Start services and to restrict language, officials claim reflects DEI principles.
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Organizations representing Head Start providers and parents detailed the scope of those restrictions in a court filing last month. According to the filing, federal officials instructed a Head Start director in Wisconsin to remove words such as “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people” from a grant application. That guidance was followed by a list of nearly 200 discouraged terms, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women.”
A spokesperson for Health and Human Services said he could not comment on the judge’s order.
Created more than 60 years ago under President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, Head Start provides early education and family support to hundreds of thousands of children from low-income families, foster care, and homelessness. While federally funded, the program is run by nonprofits, school systems, and local governments across the country.
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Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Head Start & Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, said the court’s decision puts a stop to what he described as a direct threat to local 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.
The language guidance had left many program directors uncertain about how to comply with federal requirements. Head Start leaders must explain how grant money will be used and are legally required to report demographic information about the families they serve. In a separate court filing, a Washington state director said the restrictions forced her to cancel staff training focused on supporting children with autism and those affected by trauma.
Martinez’s order blocks further layoffs within the Office of Head Start and bars the department from withholding funds or taking other punitive action against providers that continue to use the disputed terms in their applications.
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