Attorney General Bonta Co-Leads Coalition in Opposing Trump Administration’s Cruel Gutting of Head Start Standards

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday co-led a multistate coalition in submitting a comment letter opposing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) proposal to dramatically cut regulations governing the Head Start program. Head Start is an early childhood education program designed to help break the cycle of poverty by providing young children from low-income backgrounds with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and educational needs. The proposed rule would gut long-standing and evidence-backed Head Start Program Performance Standards, impose an English-only mandate, and revise the cap on allowable administrative and development costs from 15% to 5%, while adding other burdensome requirements that would undermine children’s ability to learn and be prepared to succeed in school.

“Every child deserves a fair shot to succeed, which is what Head Start provides for hundreds of thousands of families across California and the country,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Trump Administration’s proposal would strip away protections that took decades to build, depriving our most vulnerable children of invaluable programs that work to level the playing field. Opportunity should not depend on income, and as Attorney General, I will always fight back against heartless policies that put our children’s futures at risk.”

Head Start has operated with bipartisan support for over 60 years, and helps address the national childcare gap, estimated at 28.2% of children with potential need who cannot access care within a reasonable distance. In 2024–25, more than 84,000 children and nearly 1,500 pregnant women were served by California Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Head Start is critical for children who are frequently turned away from or otherwise cannot access quality early education, such as children with disabilities, children experiencing homelessness, migrant children, children learning English, and children from low-income households.

The proposed rule would eliminate over 1,400 regulations designed to protect enrolled children, pregnant individuals, and families — threatening to upend a nationwide system of care. Specifically, the proposed rule would eliminate requirements for early support and coordination of services for children with disabilities, maximum child-to-staff ratios, safety standards and safe transportation practices, parent committees, staff credentialing and training requirements, and research-based timelines for health, developmental, and vision screenings. It would also remove minimum hours of service, the prohibition on expulsions, limits on suspensions, and end the ability of families to self-attest in eligibility determinations.

In their place, HHS proposes to ban non-English instruction, cut allowable administrative costs from 15% to just 5%, and require family engagement programs that "demonstrate healthy marriage as a positive good." The proposal would grant HHS broad discretion to reject program budgets even for critical services that were previously required. Taken together, new regulations would remove or reduce requirements for education, health, and mental health services, which are core promises of the program.

HHS describes the proposed rule as returning discretion to the states and allowing programs to respond to local conditions. In reality, the proposed rule would create state-by-state disparities in early childhood education and care and significantly increase workload and costs for state agencies. As HHS itself acknowledges, the rule would also mean larger class sizes, fewer teachers, coaches, and home visitors, shorter program days, and reduced health, dental, and mental health services, leading to poorer educational outcomes for children and added strain on the states’ public health and welfare systems. The proposed cap on administrative costs could make it harder for programs to apply for, become, and remain Head Start providers, further limiting services for children in California. Several provisions also vest undefined discretion in HHS, leaving California Head Start programs exposed to political targeting by this federal administration.

Attorney General Bonta has consistently defended social safety net programs families rely on to meet basic needs. Last month, he secured a final court order blocking the administration’s restrictions on access to public benefit programs, including Head Start, based on immigration status. He also co-led a multistate lawsuit challenging the Administration’s new public charge rule that forces millions to choose between protecting their pathway to citizenship and accessing healthcare or food assistance for themselves and their families. Attorney General Bonta also has won multiple court orders protecting SNAP benefits and the data of SNAP recipients and remains vigilant in opposing any unlawful rules that jeopardize the health and well-being of Californians.

In submitting the commenter letter, Attorney General Bonta and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez co-lead the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the Governor of Kentucky.

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