Parent advocacy groups and Head Start providers are pushing back against a new federal directive they say unlawfully excludes immigrant children from early childhood education programs.
The coalition of plaintiffs announced this week that they are seeking to amend their lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy that reinterprets longstanding law to limit access to Head Start based on immigration status.
On Monday, HHS issued a directive expanding the definition of “federal public benefit” under the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to include Head Start. For the first time, this change would render some immigrant children ineligible to participate in the federally funded preschool program. The agency said the policy is effective immediately but offered no guidance on how it would be enforced, leaving providers and families uncertain and fearful.
“In Chicago, our programs already see families living in fear — including refugees, undocumented parents, and those here on student visas,” said Lauri Frichtl, executive director of Illinois Head Start. “Many are paralyzed, unsure if it’s safe to bring their children to Head Start. This directive adds to that fear, denying children critical educational opportunities and threatening the well-being of entire communities.”
Head Start, established in 1965, has served more than 40 million children nationwide. Advocates say the reinterpretation contradicts both the Head Start Act and decades of precedent.
“In Alameda County, hundreds of children and thousands of jobs will be affected by this directive,” said Clarissa Doutherd, executive director of Parent Voices Oakland. “Immigrants are threaded through the fabric of our communities and threatening them tears communities apart.”
The plaintiffs include Parent Voices Oakland, Family Forward Oregon, and Head Start associations in Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, several state ACLU chapters, and the Impact Fund.
“HHS is defying Congress by attempting to impose an immigration-based restriction that neither PRWORA nor the Head Start Act requires or permits,” said Ming-Qi Chu, deputy director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. “Reinterpreting PRWORA now to exclude immigrant children is unlawful and a direct attack on some of the very families this program was created to serve.”
Lori Rifkin, litigation director at the Impact Fund, said the administration’s policy is also an attempt to bypass normal rulemaking.
“Not only are these exclusions illegal, but the administration has escalated its attack on Head Start, children and families by declaring that HHS’s unilateral reinterpretation takes effect immediately,” Rifkin said. “This is a clear attempt to evade the required review process, and we are asking the Court to hold the administration accountable to the rule of law.”
The plaintiffs are urging the court to block the directive and prevent further efforts to limit Head Start participation. More than 800,000 children and families rely on the program each year for early education, health care and social services.
An overview of the case can be found here.
A copy of the motion to amend complaint can be found here.
