Education Politics Thousands of Washington and Oregon children at risk if Head Start ends, lawsuit alleges

More than 25,000 children in Oregon and Washington will lose the child care and early education their families rely on if the Trump administration continues its attempts to dismantle Head Start, say northwest nonprofit organizations that signed onto a lawsuit against the administration.

For the past 60 years, the federal Head Start program has provided child care and early learning opportunities to low-income children, many of whom are from non-white families or speak languages other than English.

But since President Donald Trump returned to office, the U.S. Department of Health Human Services has informed Head Start agencies they can’t use any federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and abruptly closed half of its regional offices, including the Seattle office that supported programs in Washington and Oregon.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press obtained a memo from the federal Office of Management and Budget calling for eliminating the Head Start program, as well as programs for teen pregnancy and Lyme disease.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/04/29/thousands-of-oregon-washington-children-at-risk-if-head-start-ends-lawsuit-alleges/