A federal program that helps thousands of low-income Iowa children could see hundreds of requirements deleted under a Trump administration proposal.
One change would mandate English-only instruction, except for tribal programs.
Lisa Proctor is the director of Drake University Head Start and Early Head Start, where the program serves speakers of up to 30 languages. She says the Head Start Act will remain in place but the changes could make bilingual development challenging.
“If you read through the Head Start Act, it speaks in there multiple times around dual language supports and supports to children and families, English acquisition,” Proctor says, “but to stipulate English-only instruction could be more detrimental than beneficial.”
Other proposed changes include loosening medical screening requirements and removing federal caps on class sizes. Also, families would no longer be able to self-declare they’re experiencing homelessness, as they would also have to provide external documents. Chris Juett, executive director of the Iowa Head Start Association, says this is challenging for families with informal living arrangements.
“We have a lot of rural communities that don’t have any kind of homeless shelter,” Juett says. “They are actually doubling up with family members or friends, and lots of times they will be moving from home to home.”
Last year, Iowa had more than 65-hundred kids in Head Start. The proposal is in a 60-day comment period. Proctor and Juett made their comments on the Iowa Public Radio program “Talk of Iowa.”
(Isabella Luu, Iowa Public Radio)