HOUSTON \u2013 Texas early childhood advocates are urging families to continue sending their children to Head Start and Early Head Start programs despite growing concerns over reported changes to federal regulations that could affect the longtime child care and early education program.<\/p>\n
During a virtual news conference Wednesday, leaders with CHILDREN AT RISK stressed that no official changes have been made to Head Start regulations and encouraged families not to panic while awaiting any formal action from the federal government.<\/p>\n
The organization said it is concerned that reported changes under consideration could weaken quality, transparency, accountability and accessibility standards that have guided the federally funded program for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your child is enrolled in Head Start or Early Head Start, continue bringing them to their program and stay in touch with your program director,\u201d Kim Kofron, executive director of early childhood education with CHILDREN AT RISK, said during the news conference. \u201cNo regulations have changed, and we\u2019ll know more if and when a proposed rule is released. Until then, families should stay informed, not alarmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of the news conference, no Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or NPRM, had been released by the federal government. If a proposed rule is published, it would go through a public comment period before any final changes take effect.<\/p>\n
CHILDREN AT RISK leaders said preserving existing Head Start standards is especially important in Texas, where many families already struggle to find affordable child care.<\/p>\n
According to the organization, Texas is home to nearly 465,000 low-income children with working parents. The state has capacity for about 148,675 child care subsidy seats, while Head Start and Early Head Start programs serve approximately 69,450 children.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeakening early childhood education, including Head Start, standards would be like tearing down the foundation of a house,\u201d Dr. Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of CHILDREN AT RISK, said. \u201cHow can we expect the walls and roof to remain standing when the foundation begins to crack?\u201d<\/p>\n
Head Start was established in 1965 to provide free early childhood education, health and family support services to eligible low-income families. Supporters point to decades of research showing the program improves school readiness and long-term educational and economic outcomes.<\/p>\n
The program also serves children experiencing homelessness, military-connected families and children with disabilities.<\/p>\n
Advocates said families should continue attending their local Head Start and Early Head Start programs as scheduled while monitoring updates from program administrators and federal officials.<\/p>\n
No official proposal outlining changes to Head Start regulations has been released.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Texas early childhood advocates are urging families to continue sending their children to Head Start and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139923,7250,13130,163,22612,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-398623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-child-care-advocacy","tag-children-at-risk","tag-early-childhood-education","tag-education","tag-head-start","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398623","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=398623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}