Press

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 June 16, 2026

Contact: Luci Manning, 202-374-1974

 Child Care Trust finds Head Start is the backbone of child care in hundreds of counties and existing systems cannot absorb its loss

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Cutting or eliminating Head Start would leave an additional 654,500 children without access to child care and widen the national child care gap by more than 15 percent, according to a new report released today by the Child Care Trust. The analysis, Head Start's Impact on the Child Care Gap: How the Loss of Head Start Would Widen Child Care Gaps and Weaken Local Systems, is the first comprehensive national assessment of Head Start’s role in the broader child care supply. The findings make it unmistakably clear that Head Start is not a supplemental program. In many communities, it is the child care system.

“In many regions, Head Start is not simply one option among many, it is the program families rely on,” said Linda K. Smith, executive director of the Child Care Trust and lead author of the report. “Any policy that undermines Head Start is pulling the rug out on hundreds of communities across the country.”

Key Findings

Without Head Start the national child care gap would grow substantially. Even with Head Start included, the United States faces a child care gap of 28 percent — meaning nearly one in three children who need care cannot access it within a reasonable distance. Without Head Start, that gap would climb to 32.7 percent, adding 654,500 children to the rolls of the unserved.

Nineteen states would see gaps increase by 20 percent or more. Mississippi, Texas, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Ohio would face the steepest increases. In Mississippi, the child care gap would jump by more than 70 percent without Head Start, by far the largest state-level impact in the nation.

Rural communities would bear a disproportionate burden. Nationally, Head Start accounts for 10 percent of rural child care capacity, compared to 6 percent in urban areas. In Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oregon, and West Virginia, Head Start supplies more than 20 percent of all rural child care. Rural areas already have fewer unused slots and longer travel distances, leaving them especially vulnerable.

In some communities, Head Start is the only child care available. Head Start provides 30 percent or more of total child care capacity in 399 counties and 50 percent or more in 128 counties. In seven counties, spread across Alaska, Kentucky, Missouri, and South Dakota, Head Start is the sole source of formal child care. Families there would have nowhere to turn.

The economic cost would run into the tens of billions. Reduced child care access associated with the loss of Head Start would generate an estimated $32.8 to $49.9 billion in additional economic losses over the next decade, driven by workforce exits, lost productivity, and declining tax revenues.

“We keep hearing that states can fill the gaps if federal programs are cut,” Smith continued. “But this data tells a different story. In seven counties in this country, Head Start is the only formal child care that exists. States cannot fill what doesn’t exist anywhere else. Head Start is the reason parents in hundreds of communities can go to work at all.”

The report also includes a set of federal data recommendations designed to strengthen Head Start’s integration into state child care systems, improve program transparency, and support long-term oversight.

About the Report
The analysis uses a consistent methodology across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, calculating child care gaps twice — once including Head Start capacity, once excluding it — to isolate the program’s contribution to child care access. It incorporates geographic accessibility data to reflect real-world access, not just theoretical statewide supply.

County- and state-level data are available at childcaregap.org/headstart.

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About the Child Care Trust

The Child Care Trust™ is a nonpartisan research and policy organization dedicated to understanding and addressing the nation’s child care crisis. Backed by Child Care Aware® of America, the Trust will develop real-world solutions, informed by data and research, for how America funds, organizes, and sustains quality child care.