Frozen Funds May Cause Head Start Closures In Michigan

The beginning of 2025 is one for the books as there have been so many things happening in such a short amount of time. President Donald Trump was reelected in the last presidential election and was sworn into office on January 20th, national inauguration day and he instantly went to work. He signed tons of executive orders but there was one in particular that caused major waves.

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One of those executive orders he signed put a pause and freeze on all federal funding including insurance, welfare, daycare, and other important services for American families. Instantly, and rightfully so, many people started to panic as there were so many questions about why this happened and what would happen next.

These government funds are the difference between life or death, safety and danger, peace and chaos, and so much more for tons of families across the United States. One of the most important programs that the government funds is Head Start, which is responsible for supporting early learning and development, health, and family well-being.

Head Start directors were locked out of their online payment management system last week and many of them were forced to close since they didn't have funds to remain operational. This problem has continued for some Head Start centers as they are still locked out of their accounts and have no access to the website even though it has gone back live.

The outages are leading to significant delays in payments and is affecting the functionality of the centers. There are 17 centers in Michigan and Wisconsin that have already temporarily closed their doors for the time being and there may be more that follow suit.

The Medicaid and Head Start programs were not supposed to be included in the federal funding freeze, but they were and there is no information as to if these sites were added on purpose or not. They have both since been reinstated but some centers for both Medicaid and Head Start are still locked out of their accounts, if this continues than more Head Starts centers in Michigan, and around the country, will close.