HHS Proposal Would End Head Start Slot Reservations for Homeless Children
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposal would eliminate the rule requiring Head Start centers to reserve admission slots for children experiencing homelessness and those in foster care, and would end families' ability to self-affirm homeless status. In Virginia, about 3% of the program's 11,000 funded Head Start and Early Head Start slots are currently reserved under this provision. The broader proposal would also cut Head Start's regulatory text from roughly 130 pages to 10, eliminating classroom ratios, group-size limits, and requirements around serving children with disabilities and multilingual learners, while capping administrative spending and removing references to health, mental health, dental and developmental screenings. Virginia Head Start advocates, including the state association director and a Medicaid outreach worker, oppose the change, warning it would strip vulnerable families of guaranteed access and clear standards for proving housing instability.