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Chalk one up for the 4-year-olds.

Thanks to a relentless onslaught of pleading, cajoling, lobbying and public pressure, Head Start appears to have dodged the federal budget axe — for the time being.

Last month, President Donald Trump’s early budget draft called for the elimination of Head Start, the free early-childhood program for low-income families. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy roadmap, also called for the program’s demise, saying it has “little or no academic value.”

That triggered an all-hands-on-deck response from Head Start staff, families and alumni, who touted the program’s success in propelling families out of poverty. The National Head Start Association said advocates sent more than 300,000 letters to Congress, added more than 50,000 signatures to petitions and attended rallies throughout the country.

Meanwhile, Head Start advocates took to social media and national TV to plead their case and visited Republican members of Congress to convince them of the program’s value. They reached out directly to the White House. In their free time, advocates said they lobbied everyone from neighbors to hairdressers to gardeners — anyone who had even a remote interest in the program.

It appears to have worked: The latest draft of Trump’s budget proposal, released last week, doesn’t call for any changes to the $12.27 billion program. Still, advocates worry that new cuts may lie ahead.

“We mobilized absolutely everyone,” said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start in California. “We launched a very intensive campaign. We still have a lot of concerns, but right now there’s a sigh of relief.”

From Prenatal to Kindergarten

Head Start, launched in 1965, served about 800,000 children last year, including 83,000 in California. Originally a preschool, the program now serves children from birth through age 5. Children get meals and a play-based academic curriculum that prepares them for kindergarten, while families get housing and job assistance, referrals to social and medical services, prenatal visits and parenting support.

To qualify, families need to be below the federal poverty line, which is $26,650 for a family of three, be homeless or receive food assistance. Children in foster care also qualify.

The program is relatively cost-efficient: The per-pupil annual cost is about $13,700, compared to the cost of private preschool, which in California can easily exceed $20,000 a year, depending on the location.

Research is mixed on the program’s effectiveness. One study found that Head Start alumni had significantly higher rates of high school and college graduation. But another study found that children who attended Head Start outperformed their peers at first, but by third grade the advantage had all but dissipated.

Regardless, the program is immensely popular with families and programs typically have waiting lists.

Head Start Is Helping Families in San Diego

Oscar Gomez, vice chair of Episcopal Community Services’ board of directors, a Head Start provider in San Diego, attended the program as a child growing up in Tulare County. While his mother worked in the nearby almond and orange orchards and took English classes, Gomez and his three siblings learned to share and take turns, count to 20 and write their names.

Head Start imbued him with a love of school and allowed his mother to take classes that led to higher-paying jobs, he said. Gomez went on to get two master’s degrees and his mother now conducts home visits for Head Start.

“I can honestly say that without Head Start I would not be where I am today, and there are millions and millions of people like me,” Gomez said.

Episcopal Community Services runs 17 Head Start programs, serving 1,200 children from Chula Vista, San Ysidro, San Diego and other communities. Parents typically work in local restaurants or hotels, and 60% share their living quarters with other families.

If they lost Head Start, families would either have to curtail their work hours or leave their children with neighbors or other family members, arrangements not likely to provide the same high-quality curriculum or services, said Rosa Cabrera-Jaime, the organization’s director of early education and family services.

“Absolutely, some of our families would become homeless if they lost Head Start,” she said.

Precious Jackson, a single mother of four, has relied on Head Start while she earns her bachelor’s degree and works as a substitute school librarian in San Diego. She also credits Head Start for providing speech therapy to her son, when he wasn’t talking as a toddler, and providing an extra academic boost to her daughter, whom she believes is intellectually gifted.

“Head Start has made a tremendous difference in my life,” Jackson said. “I am not wasting one drop of this opportunity.”

Without Head Start, she’d be working two or three jobs just to pay for child care, she said. Now, she can plan a higher-paying career. She hopes to graduate soon with a degree from University of Arizona’s online campus and work as a school librarian.

But she’s rattled by potential cuts to Head Start, which could derail her own education.

“For me, Head Start is a necessity,” she said. “I want to tell Congress, Head Start works. Let’s keep it rolling.”

‘Folks Are Scared’

Congress will release its budget in the next few weeks, and Head Start advocates are confident that it will reflect Trump’s wish to save the program. But it’s not guaranteed, and the final budget may still include steep cuts. In addition, they worry about cuts to other programs, such as Medicaid, that could cause Head Start families to lose health care and other services.

Neither Trump nor Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who oversees Head Start, have addressed Head Start cuts directly, but Trump has said he wants to hand more education programs to the states and reduce federal spending. Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers have come out in favor of Head Start, including numerous members of the California Legislature who last week joined their Democratic colleagues to send a letter to Congress asking to protect the program.

Cuts to HSS have already affected services, Cottrill said. Amid a 10,000-employee workforce reduction, the agency closed half of its regional centers, including one in San Francisco, leading to long delays in getting help and receiving payments. An HHS ban on public communications has prevented Head Start staff from getting clarity on funding.

“We’ve had programs within hours of closing their doors,” Cottrill said. “It’s been so hard to keep morale up and keep staff focused on their jobs, if they don’t know whether they’ll have a job tomorrow and families don’t know if they’ll have someplace to take their children.”

Head Start staff also worry about the Trump administration’s anti-diversity orders. The program requires a culturally sensitive approach in the classroom, which includes bilingual education and meals that children would recognize from home, among other things. Staff aren’t sure how to comply with Trump’s orders while also meeting program requirements.

Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association, said the recent tumult has left staff and families nervous.

“Folks are scared. The fact that eliminating Head Start was even under consideration has been scary,” he said. “We’re confident that Congress will do the right thing, but even a 25% cut would be pretty austere.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.