{"id":26739,"date":"2025-10-29T21:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/26739\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T21:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:23:09","slug":"shutdown-threatens-education-and-other-services-for-low-income-texas-toddlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/26739\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutdown threatens education and other services for low-income Texas toddlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN \u2013 Lockhart mom Vivian Dimas was looking forward to rejoining the workforce as a medical aide in the next few months, as the cost of groceries and other expenses continue to rise and her husband\u2019s income from his construction job is barely enough to cover the bills. <\/p>\n

But she\u2019ll be stuck at home for the foreseeable future as her childcare lifeline \u2013 the free federally funded Head Start program their 2-year-old son has been attending since infancy \u2013 evaporates on Friday. With that comes an end to the early childhood education, health screenings and meals he gets through the national program.<\/p>\n

Head Start programs in Texas provide services to more than 65,000 children. Some of those programs will be forced to close on Friday because of the federal government shutdown. The interruption will impact low-income parents who rely on the services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith work and everything being so slow, and the bills \u2013 they don\u2019t stop,\u201d said Dimas, who has three children ages 4 and under. \u201cI was going to step up and bring in some income, but with the government shutdown it won\u2019t be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Head Start program run by Community Action Inc. of Central Texas in rural and suburban Hays and Caldwell counties is facing imminent closure as it ends its funded year Oct. 31, but it won\u2019t get its new federal grant money on Nov. 1 because Congress has yet to pass its budget for the next year. The funding covers the organization\u2019s $600,000 monthly costs to run Head Start. <\/p>\n

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If the shutdown doesn\u2019t end before the weekend, the Central Texas organization\u2019s Head Start program will have to shutter \u2013 potentially for months \u2013 six out of its seven free childcare sites. <\/p>\n

That will leave the program\u2019s 448 area children ages 3 and younger, mostly low-income, without an affordable option in the more rural areas between Austin and San Antonio, said Danielle Engelke, Head Start program director at Community Action Inc. of Central Texas. One site connected with a school district will stay open.<\/p>\n

Some 390 families will be affected by the closings, she said. More than 280 of those children are on public benefits, including SNAP, the food benefit for families whose net income<\/a> is at or below the federal poverty line<\/a> that runs out of money this month, she said.<\/p>\n

Nearly 60 of her program\u2019s children are homeless, 35 have disabilities, and 11 are foster kids, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis will affect our most vulnerable,\u201d Engelke said.<\/p>\n

The program is one of 134 Head Start programs<\/a> nationwide \u2013 including at least three programs in Texas \u2013 that have the same Nov. 1 grant cycles and won\u2019t get their funding renewed at the end of the week, according to the National Head Start Association. The national group did not release full lists of sites that would be impacted, only the number of children and staff affected in each state as of Nov. 1. <\/p>\n

In Texas, there are 1,933 children<\/a> in services that can\u2019t get funding after this week, in nearly every area of the state. Some 560 kids could be affected in the Texas Panhandle, about 300 in the Rio Grande Valley, and 319 in Central Texas, according to a Congressional map released by the national association. The map did not specify how many of the state\u2019s nearly 1,500 sites could close after this week.<\/p>\n

Nationally, Nov. 1 shutdowns at those sites could affect up to 65,000 young children who receive \u201ccritical early learning, nutritious meals, childcare, health screenings, and other vital services\u201d through Head Start, according to a statement<\/a> by the association. That\u2019s nearly 10 percent of all Head Start classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor thousands of families, Head Start is not optional\u2014it is essential. With each passing day of the shutdown, families are pushed closer to crisis,\u201d said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the association. \u201cFamilies may have to forgo days of work and their employers may be affected as well. Congress must act now to end the shutdown and protect these children, families, and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Texas<\/a>, the Head Start program serves 14,423 children in early childhood Head Start programs and another 50,738 in Head Start preschools at 1,267 sites. Federal funding to Texas alone tops $800 million. <\/p>\n

Some of CACT\u2019s plight is just unlucky timing. The program\u2019s grant cycle starts on Nov. 1 each year, the day the federal Administration for Children and Families \u2013 run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services \u2013 releases the funds for the program to draw down and keep paying the bills. <\/p>\n

That can\u2019t happen until Congress reopens the government and passes its budget, which is not likely by the end of this week, as House Speaker Mike Johnson has put his chamber on indefinite hiatus.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Once the government is funded, shuttered Head Start sites in Central Texas should be able to reopen because the organization is on a five-year grant cycle and still has two more years of funding promised.<\/p>\n

Programs run by other organizations have their own grant cycle start dates, most of which are not Nov. 1 \u2013 but many are on Dec. 1, while others end their cycle in January. <\/p>\n

Still others have months to go. They\u2019re the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

In Central Texas at Engelke\u2019s program, nearly 130 Head Start employees, many of them parents, will be laid off Friday \u2013 including herself, Engelke said. <\/p>\n

The hardest impact to stomach, agency directors said, is the closing of a Head Start program for children of domestic abuse survivors in a women\u2019s shelter. The site cares for 16 children of single moms and provides not only early childhood education but also support services. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot only do they lose the child care, but one of the requirements for the transitional housing is that they have a job,\u201d Engelke said. \u201cIf they can\u2019t go to work, what\u2019s going to happen? If we have to close, they\u2019re going to lose so much of their support system at that site alone. That is really my most vulnerable site.\u201d <\/p>\n

Site director Katie Childs says the situation is devastating. Not only will she have to turn away mothers and children already in crisis, but she and her five staff members will lose their jobs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe children are not coming to school on the 31st because we were truly going to have a professional development day, and that has now turned into a day where we are going to be shutting down the classrooms,\u201d Childs said.<\/p>\n

The center has no local funding. All of her students are 2 or younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our children have experienced some sort of domestic violence. They are high-need and high-risk. They have all left a violent situation,\u201d Childs said. \u201cAnd out of my employees, four out of the five are single moms, and they\u2019re extremely worried because this is their livelihood.\u201d <\/p>\n

Childs helps financially support her aging parents, but she is single and has no second source of income to pick up the slack ifshe loses her job, she said.<\/p>\n

But her biggest worry is the women and children she serves, who are in the shelter because they had no family safety net to fall back on. All of them also rely on federal SNAP assistance, also known as \u201cfood stamps,\u201d that is set to dry up<\/a> next month. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to start having a ripple effect,\u201d Childs said. \u201cThey are really going to be in a bind.\u201d <\/p>\n

Childs, other site directors and the folks in Engelke\u2019s office are working to pull together resources for the affected families – from connecting them to food pantries and other services to setting them up with mental health resources. <\/p>\n

Watching her families go through such an upheaval after surviving a domestic abuse situation breaks her heart more than anything else, along with the inability to help make their lives brighter after such trauma, Childs said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe love working with the kids, having these babies run up to us, hug us, say they love us, and just seeing their moms be so grateful to have somewhere safe for their children to go,\u201d Childs said. \u201cSomewhere that they know they\u2019re being cared for and loved and taught in a high quality manner. That\u2019s something that\u2019s invaluable to our families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2013 Lockhart mom Vivian Dimas was looking forward to rejoining the workforce as a medical aide in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[163,223,287,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-26739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}