Leaders of Oregon’s Head Start programs are urging state officials to restore $9.5 million in funding cuts that have spurred additional layoffs and program reductions in key early childhood education services offered to more than 12,000 Oregon children age 5 and under.
Nancy Perin, executive director of the Oregon Head Start Association, and Charleen Strauch, the statewide group’s president, warned Gov. Tina Kotek in a Wednesday letter that millions of dollars in funding which the Department of Early Learning and Care has redirected from the program will have devastating impacts across the state.
Head Start programs nationwide have already been in upheaval under the Trump administration, facing potential closures during last year’s government shutdown, restrictions based on immigration status and cuts to funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“The agency shifted funds dedicated for Head Start to a number of other agency early learning priorities,” the two leaders wrote. “Neither the OHSA or public were consulted or involved in this process. Head Start programs were not even notified when the cuts were made.”
Kate Gonsalves, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, said in a statement that the department strongly supports Oregon’s Head Start programs. Oregon’s Prenatal to Kindergarten program still received a more than 4% base increase in its program budget, she said, while the agency itself “was directed to minimize the impact to planned services for children and families.”
“This meant that DELC had to go through a prioritization process to focus on sustaining limited investments in where those investments went the furthest for Oregon families and children,” she wrote in an email. “The Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten program is the third largest early childhood education investment in the state.”
Lucas Bezerra, a spokesperson for Kotek, said her office was reviewing the letter but did not offer any additional details.
The Oregon Legislature cut roughly $35 million from preschool and early childhood programs when it allocated $380.7 million to Head Start services in the state under the early learning and care department 2025-27 budget. Cuts affected Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten, the state-based equivalent for federal Head Start programs, as well as funding for Oregon’s Preschool Promise program, which provides free preschool for Oregon families living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
Signing that legislation into law, Kotek wrote that she recognized that projected declines in the corporate activity tax revenue for the state’s early learning account helped push lawmakers to approve cuts for those programs. But she stressed that the reductions should be executed in a way that “limits services disruptions” for families.
“My office will work closely with the agency during implementation,” she wrote. “If it is not possible to manage this reduced budget without impacting families, I plan to bring the issue forward to legislative leaders prior to the 2026 legislative session.”
The nearly $10 million in state funds for Head Start programs were reallocated to various programs in the state, including Preschool Promise, a visitation program for families expecting newborns, coaching and professional development, a parenting education program and a grant program geared toward kindergarten readiness and culturally-specific support, according to Oregon’s association.
“As a result of the agency’s failure to prioritize Head Start, we have no choice but to ask for your office to intervene and direct DELC to return funding to Head Start and the thousands of low-income Oregonians who rely on the services programs provide,” Perin and Strauch wrote to Kotek.
Head Start advocates may work with Legislature
In a separate Wednesday statement, the Oregon Head Start Association said it requested that the early learning department reconsider the funding change with the goal of working through the issue before the 2026 legislative session, but that the agency declined to restore the money. If the governor’s office declines to change course, the organization said that it would work with the Oregon Legislature to “reassert its authority and restore the funding that it allocated to Head Start programs.”
The early learning department has argued that programs have been given what they asked for during the budget process and that some programs have been underenrolled, allowing excess funds to carry over, according to a memo the Oregon Head Start Association shared with Kotek’s office. But according to a recent survey from providers, the memo says, staff hours are rising alongside increased workload without pay increases, while providers struggle to recruit staff for more significant needs such as behavioral health support.
Oregon’s Head Start Association also said that the state’s approach “fails to recognize” that most areas don’t have challenges with enrollment, adding that increased immigration enforcement and other preschool programs have made it difficult to hire and retain qualified staff. In Lane County, for instance, Strauch said that 400 Head Start slots have been cut since 2017 only to be replaced with funding for the Preschool Promise program instead.
Strauch and Perin’s letter to the governor also came a day after a federal judge in Washington granted a preliminary injunction to another coalition of Head Start advocates seeking to block mass layoffs at Head Start offices and restrictions on funding for programs involving diversity, equity and inclusion. Family Forward Oregon, a group which advocates for access to Head Start services, was a plaintiff in that case spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union.
In another case in September, a federal judge in Rhode Island approved a preliminary injunction for a group of Democrat-led states, including Oregon, blocking enforcement of a directive restricting access to federally-funded community programs such as Head Start based on immigration status. Lawyers for the Trump administration agreed to drop their appeal of that decision in mid-December. The plaintiff states have until Feb. 27 to file a motion for summary judgement, according to court order from Monday.
“We were shocked to learn that the state cut funding to Head Start programs,” Perin said in a statement. “We’ve faced so many challenges fr
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