The federal government shutdown has suspended payouts to the federally funded Head Start program.
Nine of Michigan’s 48 Head Start programs were to receive funding on Nov. 1 to serve nearly 3,000 children with childcare, early education, as well as health support.
Most of those programs will be able to tap into reserve funds, community support, and philanthropic donations to continue operating, but one will close its doors until the federal government re-opens.
That Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency which serves 85 children in its full day program will not be able to stay open without the federal dollars held back by the shutdown.
“We’re one of the programs that is so small and so rural that we are not going to be able to find funding to stay open if we do not receive our grant by Nov. 1,” Renee Pertile, early education director for the program told the Detroit Free Press.
Head Start programs provide a variety of services beyond childcare and education, including transportation, meals, and referrals to mental and physical health providers.
They also offer assessments and interventions for learning challenges.
"Those needs and what they're receiving for those developmental delays,” said Robin Bozek, the executive director of the Michigan Head Start Association. “That cannot be put on hold just because of a government shutdown."
She said the ripple effects will be felt throughout communities if parents have to stay home with their children instead of going to work.
"What they have to do is try to look to community [members] or any resources that they can to, you know, put together a contingency plan to get them week to week,” Bozek said.
A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Administration which administers Head Start programs blamed the shutdown on Democrats and said the government will work to expedite funds to Head Start programs when the shutdown ends.
