Quick Take
Encompass Community Services is scrambling to reopen Head Start, a federally funded low-income child care program, after the government shutdown and cuts to its annual budget caused the nonprofit to temporarily stop its services late last month.
Encompass Community Services is scrambling to reopen a federally funded low-income child care program after the government shutdown and cuts to its annual budget caused the nonprofit to temporarily stop its services late last month.
Head Start programs, which serve more than 250 children and their families in Santa Cruz County, stopped providing care Oct. 29 and laid off all 95 workers Oct. 31. Head Start provides a range of services including bilingual early learning to infants and children up to age 5, as well as developmental screening, meals and family support services.
With the federal government now reopening, the community health nonprofit is “actively preparing plans” to resume Head Start but doesn’t have a timeline to restart services because it still hasn’t received its annual notification of funding from the federal government.
“At this time, Encompass has not received its official notice of award from the federal Office of Head Start (OHS), and we do not yet have a timeline for when to expect it,” the organization said in a statement. “Without this award notice, we remain unable to legally resume program operations.”
Once it receives the funding, Encompass faces the added challenge of addressing significant cuts to its budget that predate the shutdown. The Trump administration stopped allowing the use of unspent funds from the prior year, called carryover funds, which caused Encompass to lose about $400,000 for Head Start. The federal government also informed Encompass in August that it reduced the annual budget for its Head Start program in Santa Cruz County from $10 million to $6 million starting next fiscal year.
Encompass said those changes “will directly impact the scope and timeline of our reopening.” Still, the nonprofit said it had already started planning for its reopening and is preparing to share more details with staff and families as it works to restart its programs.
“We recognize the disruption this closure has caused and are doing everything we can to restore services for families and rehire teachers and staff,” Encompass wrote in the statement.
Late last month, Pajaro Valley Unified School District leaders offered to partner with Encompass to provide child care while the shutdown disrupted its services.
Encompass spokesperson Renae Donus told Lookout that PVUSD isn’t operating Head Start programs during the pause, but it’s running the district’s own childhood development program – which is open to local families.
“Any Head Start family that has temporarily enrolled in the PVUSD Child Development programs during the closure will be welcomed back to Encompass as soon as we are able to reopen our centers,” the nonprofit wrote in its statement.
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