---
title: Head Start's Impact on the Child Care Gap
description: Report presenting a national agenda for Tribal early childhood development and practice that centers Tribal leadership and sovereignty as the foundation for transforming early childhood systems.
---

[CCT Resources ](https://www.childcaretrust.org/resources)

# [Head Start's Impact on the Child Care Gap](https://www.childcaretrust.org/resources/head-starts-impact-on-the-child-care-gap)

 Written by [Child Care Trust™](https://www.childcaretrust.org/resources/author/child-care-trust) | Jun 16, 2026 7:58:20 PM

Eliminating federal funding for 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. 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.

<https://www.childcaretrust.org/hs/cta/wi/redirect?encryptedPayload=AVxigLKhg48YFNwzzVAWF9OaMv84Jhz3VI0Vf8EhQAsdMOftV2ocFOToAMv8zixfjYW6BwozfnwOI1DsNhIxYu6jCpAvoS4Y1DpxKfraUqdsJpYbO61mBmMlYcZXHBPqCRufuIrL2KvxSlZiGGbjUOnRmGE5JmegNpi76huA7YIV7nSPMpbXC4gJZ5wJ7wX%2FvXNVRY6jY4D5lZVbDlzidgcrA9r2ggL1pB3wkkpV2y81mG7HCwOd&webInteractiveContentId=215196396178&portalId=3957809>

| Read a blog post about the report: [When You Disrupt Head Start, You Shake an Entire System](https://www.childcaretrust.org/blog/blog-disrupt-head-start) |   | Read a press release about the report: [New Analysis: Eliminating Head Start Would Leave 654,500 More Children Without Child Care, Costing States Up to $50 Billion](https://www.childcaretrust.org/eliminating-head-start-children-without-child-care)   |
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[View full post](https://www.childcaretrust.org/resources/head-starts-impact-on-the-child-care-gap)

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