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Head Start Has Changed Before. Why Does This Time Feel Different?
The Head Start community has navigated decades of major regulatory and monitoring change. Why does this moment feel different? The answer may lie not only in what is changing, but in how the change has been presented—and whether understandable distrust is keeping us from the work of protecting and strengthening quality.
Head Start Forward: A Town Hall, a Turning Point, and an Invitation to Stay Connected
A national Head Start Town Hall brought together U.S. and global early childhood voices to reflect on change, support staff, share strategies, and continue the conversation during the 60-day public comment period.
Protect What Matters: An Opportunity to Strengthen Head Start
Head Start can protect the safeguards that matter while simplifying bureaucratic processes that pull staff away from children and families.
Tribal Head Start in a Changing Regulatory Environment: Sovereignty, Jurisdiction, and Preparedness
he proposed Head Start regulatory changes could mean something very different for Tribal programs than simply replacing federal standards with state child care rules. The more important shift may be from one national operating code to a jurisdiction map—creating new opportunities for Tribal self-determination while also transferring responsibility, risk, and regulatory work.
Before We Accept the Premise: A Forensic Look at the Proposed Head Start Changes
The proposed Head Start regulations are being framed around flexibility, local control, streamlining, and reduced bureaucratic burden. Those ideas deserve serious consideration—but first we need to ask what is actually changing, what problem each change is intended to solve, and what happens when a federal requirement disappears.
Collaboration Without Silos: A Promising Foundation for Calvert County’s Young Children
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate for the first time in the annual strategic planning meeting of the Calvert County Early Childhood Advisory Council. As someone relatively new to Calvert County—but certainly not new to early childhood systems—I arrived...
What Early Childhood Leaders Are Talking About Across Borders
Conversations with early childhood leaders in other countries often begin with differences—policy, funding, culture, training, and expectations. But they quickly reveal how much the field shares. Across recent conversations in Kuala Lumpur, the same concerns surfaced...
A Decade Later: What the Early Head Start–Child Care Partnerships Taught Us
Editor’s note, July 17, 2026: Nearly a decade after this reflection was written, the central lesson still holds: program models succeed or fail less because of what they are called or where they originated than because of how relationships, expectations, resources, and accountability are structured. The observations below remain relevant to partnerships, delegate relationships, and […]
Looking Back at the Designation Renewal System: Intended Goals and Unintended Consequences
Editor’s note, July 17, 2026: This article was written during an earlier phase of the Head Start Designation Renewal System. Specific thresholds, procedures, and policy details have changed over time. The broader questions raised here—about incentives, workforce strain, organizational behavior, community impact, and the difference between accountability and improvement—remain relevant. The article is preserved as […]
Lessons from Rwanda: Risk, Trust, and the Boundaries of Supervision
Have we over-regulated our Early Childhood programs? Lessons I may have learned during my travels through Rwanda… Or maybe I am just longing for the good old days of play with more risk and where supervision was not defined as never allowing children to problem solve their way out of challenging situations and navigating natural […]
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