WASHINGTON – The federal shutdown threatened the operation of 30 Head Start centers run by West Central Community Action, a non-profit headquartered in Elbow Lake.
West Central and three other nonprofits that run Head Start programs in the state that serve more than 1,300 pre-school children face a Nov. 1 deadline to receive federal funding that would allow them to continue operations for a year. But as the shutdown dragged on, those payments were in danger.
“We were nervous,” said Missy Becker-Cook, CEO of West Central Community Action, whose Head Start centers serve 370 children.
But on Friday, the state came to the rescue. Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families advised West Central, and the three other nonprofits that run dozens of Head Start centers with Nov. 1 deadlines, that they are allowed to use state Head Start money to fund their November operations.
“It’s just barely enough for November, and November only,” Becker-Cook said of the approximately $400,000 that West Central was allocated by the state on July 1.
Although the federal government provides about 89% of the funding for the Head Start program in Minnesota, the state also chips in to fund centers that expand their operations.
“Head Start state funds are designated ‘to expand services and serve additional low-income children,’” said Patrick Hogan, spokesperson for Minnesota Management and Budget. “Using these funds to sustain operations during a federal funding disruption aligns with the intent of the state allocation and supports continuity of care for children and families.”
Kraig Gratke, executive director for the Minnesota Head Start Association, said the state has allowed the nonprofits at risk of losing their federal Head Start money on Nov. 1 to draw down the state funds aimed at expanding enrollment in the program “at an accelerated rate.”
“We have just heard this and are waiting for the state to let us know what the process will be,” Gratke said. “This is really about keeping kids and families safe and keeping staff on. It is the best short-term solution we could have in hopes the shutdown doesn’t last.”
The scramble to keep centers that provide early education, meals and even infant care for low-income families from closing shows the widening impact of the federal government’s shutdown and its cutoff of federal monies.
The lengthening federal shutdown has already affected the federal heating assistance program and could soon derail the federal food stamp program known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as WIC, another federal nutrition program.
The other nonprofits in the state that faced a looming Nov. 1 deadline for Head Start funding were the Rochester-based Families First of Southern Minnesota, Anoka Community Action and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. These agencies fund dozens of Head Start centers.
Anoka Community Action and the Grand Portage Band did not return calls requesting information.
But Families First said it would spend state funds to keep its centers open.
“Five hundred children and their parents would be impacted if we have to shut down,” said Kristin Quenzer, the executive director of Families First. “But we are able to draw (state) funds down until there is an agreement.”
Quenzer said Families First has been threatened with a loss of Head Start funding before, but “it has never been as tenuous as it has been this year.”
Besides the threat posed by the shutdown, the Trump administration froze Head Start funding at the beginning of the year and the president failed to include funding for the program in his 2026 budget.
Hundreds of employees working in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which administers Head Start, were laid off by the Trump administration this year. And five of the program’s regional offices – including the one that served Minnesota centers in Chicago – were abruptly closed. Minnesota centers must now correspond with a center in Rapid City.
“It would be really bad for children and families,” Gratke said of the possible shuttering of centers.
“If they shut down, there’s nowhere else for the children to go,” he said, citing the high cost of day care and even higher cost of infant care. “Their parents won’t be able to work or go to school and do the things that lift them out of poverty.”
The post The shutdown threatened to close dozens of Head Start centers. Then the state stepped in. appeared first on MinnPost.
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