{"id":361288,"date":"2026-09-30T23:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361288\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T23:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:38:07","slug":"time-is-running-out-to-voice-concerns-on-head-start-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361288\/","title":{"rendered":"Time is running out to voice concerns on Head Start changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time is winding down for people to speak out before proposed changes<\/a> to Head Start are potentially implemented by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The changes were announced in August with a 60-day comment<\/a> period that ends on Oct. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n

These changes include reducing federal regulations and giving more authority to states, but advocates say without established federal regulation, they feel children and families in need will suffer the consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do have a 3-year-old Brayden. It\u2019s actually his two-year anniversary today of him joining Head Start,\u201d said Megan Newsome, who advocates for Head Start.<\/p>\n

She says the 60-year-old program was a major help to her during a critical time of need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer while pregnant with him,\u201d said Newsome. \u201cSo, it was huge on being able to trust Head Start in taking care of my child in this huge time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates say the Trump administration\u2019s proposal<\/a> to \u201cdefer to state policies whenever possible\u201d concerns them.<\/p>\n

In New York, the United Neighborhood Houses, which is a membership organization for New York settlement houses, are some of the state\u2019s early providers of Head Start.<\/p>\n

Nora Moran, the organization\u2019s director of policy and advocacy, says if New York voters care about affordability, Head Start should be one of the issues that\u2019s top of mind when they head to the polls in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed rule – one of the examples that it walks through is removing certain screening requirements around developmental delays that a child might have, health screenings, encouraging them to get connected to a dentist,\u201d said Moran.<\/p>\n

Head Start was initially launched in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s \u201cwar on poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to HeadStart.gov, the program serves over 50,000 New York children. Nationally, it serves more than 700,000 in providing early education, health screenings and healthy meals during a child\u2019s most critical window of brain development.<\/p>\n

Zero to Three is a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring infants and toddlers have a strong start in life.<\/p>\n

Its chief policy officer,\u00a0Melissa Boteach, tells Spectrum News 1\u00a0she is having conversations with leaders across the country about what these changes may mean for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking to folks in New York, and in many states in part because this is something that will affect state policy as well,\u201d said Boteach. \u201cIf you undermine Head Start, that\u2019s how a lot of children in New York and the country are getting services, are getting childcare. So, this is going to put enormous pressure on other services if those are rolled back as part of Head Start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spectrum News 1 reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services<\/a> which oversees the Head Start program for comment. We did not immediately hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time is winding down for people to speak out before proposed changes to Head Start are potentially implemented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[206,9,24,55,54,49,12,5304,56,112,108,87,200],"class_list":["post-361288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-albany-capital-region","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-nicole-neuman","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-politics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}