Head Start Funding Lags By Nearly 1 Billion This Year, Causing Some Preschool Closures

Head Start centers across the U.S. have received nearly 1 billion less in federal money compared with this time last year - and a lag in funding this week has caused some preschool classrooms for low-income children to close.

The federal government has distributed 1.6 billion for Head Start from Jan. 1 through Tuesday, compared with 2.55 billion issued during the same period last year, according to the office of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., which has been analyzing a federal database . Murray said the Trump administration had 'slow-walked" funding appropriated by Congress.

Head Start, a child development program for more than half a million of the nation's neediest kids, is federally funded, but runs through private and public schools.

The preschools are deeply reliant on the federal money they receive. On Wednesday, a delay in funding closed Head Start classrooms serving more than 400 children at Inspire Development Centers in Sunnyside, Washington. More than 70 staff have been laid off, and the center's leaders don't plan to reopen the classrooms until they receive federal money, Inspire CEO Jorge Castillo said.

The lag in funding is the latest barrier Head Start preschools have faced under the Trump administration. During the brief freeze on federal grants after President Donald Trump took office, Head Start providers were unable to access their accounts. Unable to make payroll that day, several centers temporarily closed , cutting off free child care for low-income families, for whom a day without work is often a day without pay .