Federal Early Education Update: May 2025

The past few weeks in the nation’s capital have been busy ones with more clarity around the administration’s budget priorities as well as committee markups related to the reconciliation package. Below is a roundup of recent events that have a direct impact on early education.

Budget and Appropriations

On May 2, President Trump released his FY 2026 “skinny budget” which provides topline funding requests but isn’t as comprehensive as the full budget proposal that is expected to be released in the coming month or two. New America’s Education and Work program released a full analysis of how the budget would impact everything from early education to higher education.

The early education community collectively breathed a sigh of relief when the budget was released and didn’t include plans for the elimination of Head Start. In early April, USA Today broke the news that the White House was seriously considering releasing a budget blueprint that included Head Start among the programs slated for elimination. Since Head Start is not mentioned at all in the skinny budget, we’ll have to wait until the full budget is released in the coming weeks to get a better idea of the administration’s funding plans for the program. The same goes for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) which was also not mentioned in the budget proposal.

While it’s good news that the budget proposal doesn’t zero out funding for Head Start, it’s important to keep in mind the various other ways in which the administration has been working to undermine the program. Many of these actions were detailed in a late April letter from dozens of Senate Democrats to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and include the abrupt closure of five of the ten regional offices that assist local grantees, the termination of almost 100 Office of Head Start central office staff, and ongoing delays in payments and grant renewals. These actions come as new polling from First Five Years Fund reaffirms the fact that there is strong support for Head Start across the political spectrum, including among 74 percent of Trump voters.

While Head Start was spared in the budget proposal, other programs important to early learning weren’t as lucky. The budget calls for the elimination of the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) program, a $75 million program specifically designed to support student parents by funding child care access for low-income parents enrolled in college. Additionally, the budget proposal zeroes out funding for the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) program, a $315 million program that is the only federal funding stream specifically dedicated to building state-level capacity across the early care and education landscape. The administration has justified this change by claiming that “PDG literally does not fund any preschool for children and their families.” The purpose of the program is not to directly fund pre-K spots, however. Instead, PDG funds play an essential role in helping early learning programs work better through improved data collection, alignment of multiple agencies and systems, and piloting of new programs.

It’s important to keep in mind that the release of the skinny budget is just the first step in the FY26 budget process. The White House will release a full budget with more funding details and then it’s up to Congress to decide on specific funding levels prior to the expiration of government funding at the end of September.

Subregulatory Guidance

On April 29, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued two Information Memorandums along with a Dear Colleague Letter detailing how early learning programs can meet the goals outlined in President Trump’s January 29th Executive Order focused on expanding school choice. First Five Years Fund published a detailed overview of these three notices, making note of the fact that these notices are not regulatory guidance. Much of the practices that are encouraged in these notices already take place, such as how Head Start assists families with understanding their educational options when it’s time to transition to kindergarten and how a core purpose of CCDBG is to promote parental choice when it comes to deciding on the specific child care setting that best meets family’s needs.

Reconciliation

Members of Congress are continuing to hash out the details of the reconciliation package in committee. Committee delays in marking up legislation mean that it will be difficult to meet Speaker Mike Johnson’s ambitious timeline of getting the package passed by the House of Representatives by Memorial Day. The reconciliation process has recently been marked by Republican tensions over both deficit concerns from fiscal hawks as well as disagreements from the party’s moderates over proposed cuts to Medicaid. Keep in mind that Medicaid provides health coverage to over 37 million children, so any cuts to the program could have a negative impact on children from low-income families as well as people with disabilities. New America’s Higher Education team has a full write-up on the higher education plan recently passed by the House Education and Workforce Committee. Of particular importance to early education advocates will be the tax changes included in the reconciliation package that eventually emerges, with the possibility of reform to tax credits such as the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).