Head Start in Oregon has enough funding to keep running, for now

Oregon’s Head Start programs serving nearly 12,000 children are set to avoid an anticipated nationwide trend of facility closures caused by the ongoing government shutdown until at least the end of the year.

The government shutdown that began Oct. 1 has put the early childhood education and readiness program at risk of closures across the nation, adding more uncertainty to ongoing legal disputes with the Trump administration over the program’s future and whether it should serve immigrants without permanent legal status.

But Oregon families who rely on Head Start can count on state funding to fill the gap, at least for the time being.

A Wednesday statement signed by more than 125 groups supporting families nationwide, including the Oregon Head Start Association, Southern Oregon Head Start, and Head Start Lane County, urged Congress to end the shutdown immediately. The groups warned that 140 Head Start programs across 41 states and Puerto Rico will “not have received their operational funding” by Saturday. Oregon received more than $195 million for federal Head Start program funding last year.

“These programs serve more than 65,000 young children, providing valuable early learning, nutrition, child care, health screenings, and other important services,” the statement reads. “Without funding, many of these programs will be forced to close their doors, leaving children without care, teachers without pay, and parents without the ability to work.”

Although four Oregon Head Start locations missed out on those funds, none have reported closing, according to Nancy Perin, executive director of the Wilsonville-based Oregon Head Start Association.

A 60-day deal being hashed out by the early learning and care department allowed them to instead tap into existing funding from programs such as the Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten program, the state’s equivalent to Head Start created back in 1987, she said. The Oregonian/OregonLive.com first reported on the move in mid-October.

Exact figures are not yet available, but program leaders plan to meet in Salem on Thursday with the agency’s Early Learning Programs Director Dorothy Spence to discuss more concrete guidelines, Perin said. At least one other Head Start funding recipient — the Hood River-based nonprofit Mid-Columbia Children’s Council — could lose its annual December grant funding if the shutdown continues and a deal is not hashed out, according to Perin. That organization serves more than 700 families throughout the Columbia River Gorge area.

“At this point, our four November programs have their doors open,” Perin told the Capital Chronicle. “They’re serving children and families today, and they will continue to. As this federal shutdown continues, then things start getting a little more wonky.”

Kate Gonsalves, a spokesperson for the early learning department, confirmed that agency leaders will be meeting with the Oregon Head Start Association later this week. She said programs that qualify for the temporary funding agreement are dually funded by the state and federal governments. To receive assistance, a Head Start provider must experience a delay in access to their federal funds, she said, and the assistance cannot exceed the total amount of money awarded to a program by Oregon annually.

“It’s important to note that this is not a loan to Head Start programs and is not ‘backfilling,’” Gonsalves wrote in a Monday statement. “These are dual-funded programs so the state dollars are not replacing federal funds but can be drawn down earlier in the cycle.”