This story was updated on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, at 1:46 p.m.
Georgia Head Start providers are calling for an end to the government shutdown, as some centers plan to close at the end of this week in preparation for the loss of federal funds.
The fiscal cycle for five providers in Georgia, and many providers around the country, runs from Nov. 1 to Oct. 31, meaning they typically expect federal funding on Nov. 1.
The shutdown, however, means that some providers will need to close their doors and furlough staff. Action Pact in South and Central Georgia is planning to close 15 Head Start facilities, stopping services for 548 children amd furloughing 187 staff members in anticipation of the federal government failing to reopen by the Nov. 1 funding deadline, according to the organization’s executive director, Diane Rogers.
Georgia Head Start providers receive loan to keep doors open
Three major Georgia Head Start providers are receiving a 45-day bridge loan totaling $8 million to remain operational amid the ongoing government shutdown. The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta’s Impact Investing Fund is providing the loan to YMCA of Metro Atlanta, Sheltering Arms and Easter Seals of North Georgia to ensure the federally funded early childhood education program continues to run.
The loan will help the three providers serve more than 5,800 children in the state, but that still leaves several hundred children who may see their Head Start services stop by the end of the week if the government shutdown continues.
Frank Fernandez, the president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, said the loan is a stopgap measure.
“The role of philanthropy is not to replace the role of the federal government. It’s not to supplant the needed supports that the federal government does and should provide,” Fernandez said. “And right now, that is what we’re at risk of happening because of the shutdown.”
YMCA of Metro Atlanta President and CEO Lauren Koontz said such a large gesture of philanthropic support for Head Start, an otherwise federally funded program, is unprecedented.
“They are providing this loan because they believe in us and they believe in the kids and the families that we serve, but they can’t continue to do it,” Koontz said. “This is an extraordinary situation.”
The impact of Head Start closures during shutdown
In addition to free early childhood education and child care, Early Head Start and Head Start programs provide free meals, health screenings and other wraparound services to children up to age five from low-income families. These are critical services for low-income families that allow them to go to work, according to Juanita Yancey, the executive director of the Georgia Head Start Association.
“Head Start isn’t just preschool. It’s what allows working parents in our communities to keep their jobs,” Yancey told WABE.
The effects of Head Start closures would be compounded by the suspension of food aid in Georgia through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program due to the government shutdown, according to Mindy Binderman, the executive director of Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students.
“These families are at or below the federal poverty level. That means they are working hourly jobs usually, mostly without paid leave. If the family takes off work to take care of their child because they don’t have child care, that means they are not getting paid. That means that they can’t pay rent,” Binderman said.
Rural Georgians in particular would feel the effects of Head Start centers closing.
“In rural Georgia, the challenge is even more acute, because sometimes the Head Start programs are the only licensed programs in their county that serve children head-on,” Binderman said.
Blythe Robinson, the president and CEO of Sheltering Arms, said if the government shutdown continues past the duration of the 45-day loan, the organizations would have to close down their centers and furlough staff. In addition, because the major Head Start providers in the metro Atlanta area have the same funding cycle, many children wouldn’t have other Head Start options.
“That also means then that because we’re all closed, there’s no one for us to refer our children and families to,” Robinson said.
“In normal circumstances, we could say, ‘I’ll refer some of our families to the Y or Easter Seals, but we can’t do that if all of us are in the same situation.”
Donna Davidson, CEO and president of Easter Seals of North Georgia, said her organization, the YMCA of Metro Atlanta and Sheltering Arms have met with members of Congress from Georgia and state leaders to talk about the unprecedented impact of the government shutdown.
“There’s been nothing that’s come close to this before,” she said.
Despite the intense partisan battle in Washington over the budget, Davidson said the providers’ aims are nonpartisan.
“Head Start is a nonpartisan program. At the end of the day, this is just about the children and families in Georgia and in other places throughout the country that are being impacted. So that’s what it’s about. It’s about lives. It’s about kids going hungry,” she said. “You have to put the politics aside. It’s about the impact on so many families, government employees, armed forces employees, employees that work for organizations like ours.”
