A week after Focus: HOPE learned it would not receive federal funds for its fall Head Start program, there is finally some clarity about why. But concerns remain about what will happen to the 324 kids and their families the nonprofit served last year. They have lost free early education services in their neighborhoods and will have to travel farther to open spots in other Head Start programs in the city.
On Wednesday, Aug. 20, the Administration for Children and Families, the federal agency overseeing Head Start, provided further explanation to its Wayne County grantees for why Focus: HOPE’s Head Start program did not receive federal funds for the upcoming school year.
What happened to the money?
The $47 million that had been slated for Wayne County Head Start providers, the agency told grantees in a meeting, had been completely exhausted funding just three providers because each providers’ cost per child went up due to a 2024 federal mandate requiring Head Start teachers receive pay parity with K-12 teachers in their school district.
The additional cost increased each provider’s budget, making it so the $47 million was only enough to spread across the three top-scoring applicants: Starfish Family Services, which received around $24 million this year; MiSide, which received a little over $4.9 million, and Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, which received $18.3 million. All are five year grants.
The new information provided some clarity, according to Jennifer Jonika, executive director at Starfish Family Services, who attended the meeting. Previously, there had been confusion among local Head Start providers around whether all the Wayne County Head Start funds had been distributed.
Yet the question remains as to what the fate of Focus: HOPE’s Head Start classrooms will be.
No additional funding
The Administration for Children and Families said in a statement that “decisions for continued funding to Focus: HOPE will be at the discretion of the new awardees.”
However, the option to direct funds to Focus: HOPE has not been made clear to grantees, according to Jonika. Instead, Jonika said her organization was alerted for the first time by phone call on Thursday, Aug. 14, that it would be responsible for serving not only the 831 Head Start kids Starfish applied for funding to serve, but also the over 300 kids Focus: HOPE served last year, when they were a subgrantee of Starfish.
The plan to service Focus: HOPE kids doesn’t include more than 100 additional children who had pre-enrolled at Focus: HOPE for the upcoming school year.
While Starfish has been tasked with spearheading the effort to get Focus: HOPE’s Head Start kids redistributed to open slots across the Head Start providers in Detroit, it will ultimately be a collective effort among all Detroit providers to get kids into open slots.
But providers say there are a number of barriers to the Administration for Children and Family’s desired plan of getting the Focus: HOPE children placed at other Head Start sites, including the distance families would have to travel to drop their child off, and the additional funding that would be needed to serve kids where they are.
Each Head Start provider applied only for funds to cover slots in their service areas. For Starfish, which serves the west and southwest sides of Detroit and some parts of western Wayne County, this means it applied for and received $24 million, which is enough only to serve the 831 kids Starfish budgeted for.
“That funds us for current buildings and staff and children and families,” said Jonika. It does not, however, cover adding another building in Focus: HOPE’s ZIP codes, for example, which would be necessary according to Jonika since Starfish’s closest Head Start location is around a 15-minute drive for families in Focus: HOPE’s ZIP codes.
“We can’t provide services in Focus: HOPE’s ZIP codes without a building there, which would require more funding,” Jonika said. Focus: HOPE is the only Head Start provider with sites that serve families in four ZIP codes across the central and northwest areas of Detroit.
Sean de Four, president and CEO of MiSide, also said in a statement that MiSide’s classrooms are not “close enough to Focus: HOPE to be able to effectively serve all the families they served.” De Four agreed more funding would be necessary to cover either the creation of any additional sites in Focus: HOPE’s service area or additional enrollment outside of the 123 slots MiSide received federal funding for.
But Jonika said Head Start providers were informed this week that there are no additional funds available to serve families within their own ZIP codes and the expectation remains that Focus: HOPE kids will get placed across Detroit with organizations that have open slots.
Distance, waitlists barriers to early education
Combined with other Detroit-based Head Start providers, including United Children and Families and New St. Paul, both of which didn’t have to recompete for funds this year, there are about 360 Head Start slots currently available in Detroit, according to Jonika. This means that every Focus: HOPE kid between the ages of 3 and 5 will likely be offered a placement at one of multiple Head Start providers in the city.
But just because a family is offered a spot for their child with another Head Start provider, doesn’t mean they’ll be able to access it. Jonika said many Focus: HOPE families walk to drop their kids’ off at Head Start sites. Getting to a Head Start site farther away could be a significant barrier to families.
Another looming issue will be finding placement for the youngest Focus: HOPE kids, given that there are only a total of 25 open Early Head Start slots across these Detroit providers, said Jonika. Early Head Start serves infants and toddlers between birth and 3 years old.
“Historically in Detroit, there’s never been enough Early Head Start funding to serve all the need, we all have wait lists regularly,” Jonika said. “Now there’s less slots.”
Some Head Start grantees’ sites are already close to capacity, meaning the options for families in terms of locations that have available spots are narrower.
MiSide has five Early Head Start and 17 Head Start slots open. Starfish is already at 96% capacity, with no open Early Head Start and 32 open Head Start spots currently open at its sites.
Jonika said there are also wait lists for spots at some Starfish sites — one of their buildings has 22 infants and toddlers on a wait list, for example. “There is so much need in the Detroit area,” said Jonika. “Early care and education is very needed, especially for families with lower incomes.”
Grantees say they’ve been meeting regularly with the Administration for Children and Families to discuss the plan to transition Focus: HOPE Head Start kids to other sites. Nonetheless, Jonika said, “we’re all still kind of confused as to what’s happening.”
Waymond Hayes, director of early learning at Focus: HOPE, said he believes the federal government’s actions amount to de facto Head Start funding cuts.
“They’re bullying them to do something they don’t have the money for,” Hayes said.
This article has been updated to correct an inaccuracy. Jennifer Jonika’s title is executive director at Starfish Family Services.
This article has been updated with new information.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Head Start providers say feds expect them to serve Focus: HOPE kids without more funding
Reporting by Beki San Martin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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