Protect Head Start: Arizona’s Children and Workforce Have Everything To Gain
Head Start is more than child care. It is an investment in Arizona’s children, families, workforce and economy.
For six decades, Head Start has helped children from low-income families in Arizona and nationwide arrive at school better prepared to learn, while connecting children and families to health care, dental care, developmental supports, nutrition, mental health services and other critical resources. All factors have proven to be instrumental in setting a child on a course to succeed in school, attain education after high school, and secure a high-skill, high-wage job.
Today, 17,000 Arizona children rely on Head Start and the program generates an estimated $200 million in economic impact for the state.
What’s At Stake
A proposed federal rule would rescind the current Head Start Program Performance Standards and replace them with a much shorter framework, giving states and local programs substantially more control over how, and what, services are delivered.
This flexibility must not come at the expense of quality, consistency, or opportunity.
Head Start’s standards establish a national quality floor for education, health, nutrition, mental health, disability services, family support and staffing. Removing these requirements could make the quality and availability of services increasingly dependent on state regulations, local resources and program decisions – impacting thousands of kids.
What this could mean for Arizona:
- Increased child-to-teacher ratios: Arizona licensing allows higher ratios and sets no maximum group size. Weaker Head Start requirements could mean larger groups and less individualized attention.
- Lower home visiting: 43% of Arizona’s Early Head Start families are served through home visiting. Eliminating federal minimums for visit frequency, duration and caseloads could particularly affect rural, Tribal and transportation-limited families.
- Removed guidelines around supporting children with disabilities: Head Start serves 1,781 Arizona children with disabilities. Reduced requirements for developmental screening, follow-up and behavioral supports could make services less consistent, placing more strain on the families serving as caregivers.
- Reduced qualification and credential standards for teachers: Changes to the performance standards will allow programs to employ educators who have less formal education, training, or experience than currently required, which can have a negative impact on an educator’s ability to get kids where they need to be.
This is An Opportunity and Workforce Issue
Education Forward Arizona has long maintained as part of our mission that every student deserves access to a great education, regardless of their zip code. Head Start is critical to achieving that. It is a program that is most important for families facing the greatest barriers, including poverty, homelessness, foster care involvement, developmental or disability concerns, transportation challenges, and limited access to high-quality early learning.
Almost as a bonus, Head Start helps parents stay engaged in the workforce, pursue education and training and ensure their children are in quality, safe learning environments.
Arizona has Everything to Gain by protecting high-quality early learning and everything to lose if access to comprehensive services becomes dependent on geography or local resources.
Take Action
The federal public comment period is open through October 6, 2026.
Tell federal policymakers to:
- Protect strong Head Start quality standards.
- Preserve supports for children with disabilities and developmental needs.
- Maintain meaningful home-visiting and family supports.
- Ensure changes do not deepen inequities for Arizona’s most vulnerable children and families, especially in rural communities.
- Ensure teacher credentialing remains unchanged.
- Recognize Head Start as essential workforce and economic infrastructure.
Every child deserves a strong start. Every family deserves the opportunity to thrive. And Arizona’s future depends on both.
Make a public comment: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/07/2026-16134/reducing-federal-burden-for-head-start-programs