Mamdani and Hochul had delivered a political victory. The people delivering the actual service would be New York’s child-care workers, who number some forty thousand, seventy-five per cent of whom identify as nonwhite women. They earn less than workers in ninety-six per cent of other occupations in the city, often placing them just above the federal poverty line. The patchwork system in which they operate, a mix of public funding and private payment, can be confusing and frustrating to parents, and to the providers themselves. Many caregivers are hoping that the newfound attention to their field will be channelled into making it more stable and equitable.
To some degree, this will be a matter of revising previous efforts to expand access to early-childhood education. The widely lauded universal pre-K program that was Bill de Blasio’s signature achievement as mayor began rolling out in 2014; 3K (free preschool for three-year-olds) started in 2017. Both programs used a centralized enrollment system to allocate children among a wide variety of providers, ranging from small home-based facilities and large nonprofit networks to campuses run by the city’s public-school system. The locations that weren’t city-run received contracts with the Department of Education. But this created a pointed disparity: teachers directly employed by public schools received better pay and benefits than their peers elsewhere, even when they had the same duties and qualifications. This was bad for the caregivers, but also bad for the programs where they worked, which have faced destabilizing turnover as employees left in pursuit of better pay.
“We are directly competing with the D.O.E., and they fund us—which is a very odd place to be,” Tiffany Roberson, who oversees early-childhood education at Hudson Guild, a settlement house that runs several centers in Manhattan, told me. Community-based organizations like Roberson’s account for sixty per cent of the city’s pre-K seats, according to the Day Care Council of New York.
After de Blasio left office, Eric Adams pulled back on support for 3K, cutting outreach and funding. City payments were extremely slow to arrive; a number of day-care centers struggled to cover rent and payroll. “We had some providers who went an entire fiscal year without getting paid at all,” Nora Moran, of United Neighborhood Houses, which represents many settlement houses, told me. Some took out loans to meet operating expenses. “The city doesn’t pay interest,” Tara Gardner, the executive director of the Day Care Council, noted dryly. (Adams eventually reversed course, in the lead-up to last year’s mayoral election.) Understandably, providers remain wary. “They don’t have a very good taste in their mouths for how the city runs these programs,” Gutiérrez, the city councillor, said.
That’s not to say that caregivers aren’t wishing for the best. “Parents are going to be happy—because I would have been happy,” Stacy Byrd, a pre-K teacher at the University Settlement Children’s Corner in East New York, told me. On a recent Wednesday morning, her students were learning about wheels and transportation. Outside, trains rattled by on the elevated tracks above Livonia Avenue; inside, Byrd was reading “Bear on a Bike.” The kids were in the “Fox” classroom, and, when the titular bear came across foxes in the forest, the students practiced little fox howls. The natural world had made an unwelcome incursion on their habitat the previous fall: a storm in October had flooded the building, and downstairs, months later, repairs were ongoing. Upstairs, though, the Foxes were snug.
Seventeen years ago, before Byrd got her start in early-childhood education, she was a mom flummoxed by child care. “I even wrote to the City Council to try to find out, Why is it that I can’t find affordable child care?” she said. At a loss, she sent her children out of state to live with their grandparents for a year. With help from her church, she was eventually able to piece together care back in the city. Her daughter, who is now twenty-four, has followed her into the field—she teaches two-year-olds at the Children’s Corner. Byrd said that she is “hopeful” about the new mayor’s plans. “I’m happy and proud that child care is one of the considerations he’s fighting for,” she told me. “Because I do feel like that is overlooked.”
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families, amid the ongoing fraud scandal in the state, said Friday that it’s looking into 158 providers who receive funding from a program aimed at making child care affordable for its residents.
The state agency earlier this month said it had 55 open investigations involving providers receiving Child Care Assistance Program funding, which officials say supports 23,000 children and 12,000 families in accessing health care, and invested $306.6 million for affordable child care for Minnesota in fiscal year 2024.
“DCYF remains committed to fact-based reviews that stop fraud, protect children, support families, maintains the public trust, and minimize disruption to communities that rely on these essential services,” the state agency said in a statement on Friday.
Conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley, in a video posted last month, alleged nearly 12 day care centers in Minnesota that are receiving public funds are not actually providing any service.
The state agency said that it was already investigating four of the facilities discussed in the video when it was released. Officials said Friday they had “no public information to share” about the probes.
On Jan. 5, the state agency announced a round of “additional on-site compliance checks.”
“Following standard practice, each of these site visits was opened as an investigation until records obtained during the visit were reviewed,” officials said in the release.
CBS News conducted its own analysis of nearly a dozen day care centers mentioned in the video: all but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months.
A federal judge ruled Friday that President Trump’s administration must keep federal funds flowing to child care subsidies and other social service programs in five Democratic states — at least for now.
The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick extends by two weeks a temporary one issued earlier this month that blocked the federal government from holding back the money from California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. That expires Friday.
The judge said he’d decide later whether the money is to remain in place while a challenge to cutting it off works its way through the courts.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this month that it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others.
The states say the move was instead intended to damage Mr. Trump’s political adversaries.
A judge previously gave the states a reprieve to the administration’s plan to halt funding for the states unless they provide information on the beneficiaries of some programs, including names and Social Security numbers. The temporary restraining order was set to expire Friday.
Around the same time as the actions aimed at the five states, the administration put up hurdles to Minnesota for even more federal dollars. It also began requesting all states to explain how they’re using money in the child care program.
The programs are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes child care for 1.3 million children from low-income families nationwide; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that provides money for a variety of programs. The states say that they receive a total of more more than $10 billion a year from those programs — and that the programs are essential for low-income and vulnerable families.
HHS sent letters to the states on Jan. 5 and 6 telling them they would be placed on “restricted drawdown” of program money until the states provided more information.
For TANF and the Social Service Block Grant, the request required the states to submit the data, including personal information of recipients beginning in 2022, with a deadline of Jan. 20.
In court papers last week, the states said what they describe as a funding freeze does not follow the law.
They said Congress created laws about how the administration can identify noncompliance or fraud by recipients of the money — and that the federal government hasn’t used that process.
They also said it’s improper to freeze funding broadly because of potential fraud and that producing the data the government called for is an “impossible demand on an impossible timeline.”
In a court filing this week, the administration objected to the states describing the action as a “funding freeze,” even though the headline on the HHS announcement was: “HHS Freezes Child Care and Family Assistance Grants in Five States for Fraud Concerns.”
Federal government lawyers said the states could get the money going forward if they provide the requested information and the federal government finds them to be in compliance with anti-fraud measures.
The administration also notes that it has continued to provide funding to the states, not pointing out that a court ordered it to do so.
The typical American family earns far too little to comfortably afford child care, according to a new analysis.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) considers child care affordable when households spend no more than 7% of their total annual income on such services. By that measure, households need income of nearly $403,000 to cover the cost of care for two children, LendingTree, an online loan marketplace, estimates.
As of 2024 (the last year for which data is available), the median annual family income in the U.S. was $105,800, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The average cost of full-time child care for a family with an infant and a 4-year-old amounts to $28,000, according to advocacy group Child Care Aware of America.
“Child care costs are just incredibly daunting for all but the wealthiest Americans,” Matt Schulz, a chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, told CBS News. “It forces parents into some really tough choices, including whether to have kids or not.”
Families with two children spend an average of $2,252 per month on child care — more than the cost of rent in dozens of the country’s largest cities, according to other LendingTree figures.
Federal labor data shows that families spend between 8.9% and 16% of their median income on full-time care for one child in 2022 (the latest data available).
The rising cost of child care has become a focal point for lawmakers and policymakers amid public concerns about affordability, while some leaders are taking action. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this month announced a plan for free child care for 2-year-olds, part of Mamdani’s broader push to bring universal child care to New York City.
Other states, including Kentucky, have also made a push for universal Pre-K, with officials framing it as a boon for education and for families.
Community Change Action Childcare Changemaker BriTanya Brown joins coalition partners at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol Building in support of President Biden’s $16 billion request for child care supplemental funding to support children, families and early educators on Dec. 6, 2023, in Washington, DC.
Paul Morigi
Getty Images for Care Can’t Wait
A Fort Worth native and former child care provider is running for office in the Abilene area in the hopes of bringing representation of early educators to the Texas Legislature.
BriTanya Brown, an independent candidate for Texas House District 71, has launched a campaign to represent the Abilene area, about 150 miles west of Fort Worth. Although Brown doesn’t want the only focus of her campaign to be child care, her role as a child care provider and advocate catalyzed her decision to run. A graduate of the Fort Worth Independent School District’s Green B. Trimble Technical High School, who was also dually enrolled at Tarrant County College, she’s passionate about addressing statewide child care issues that impact her hometown and her current community.
The state’s child care subsidy waitlist now exceeds 95,000 children. In Tarrant County, there are 14 ZIP codes considered to be child care deserts, or areas where the demand for care is at least three times greater than the supply of care. In Taylor and Jones counties, where Abilene is located, there are seven child care deserts, but there are less child care seats for every 100 children of working families — 57 seats compared to Tarrant’s 77.5, according to 2025 data from Children at Risk.
About 5,000 child care centers and licensed family homes across Texas closed between March 2020 and January 2023, causing a 27% drop in the number of programs compared to pre-COVID levels, according to a policy brief from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.
BriTanya Brown speaks at an event in Mableton, Georgia, during Childcare Changemakers’ National Child Care Voter Day of Action, advocating for more local and state investment in child care funding. Courtesy of 2902 Media
“If we can figure out complex oil and gas financing, we should be able to keep child care centers from closing on our working families. Child care is not asking for a handout,” Brown said. “When child care dies, the economy dies with it.”
Brown operated a child care program and homeschool cooperative, both named Our Loving Village, in Stamford until a July 2023 fire put her out of business. Since then, she’s continued to advocate for local, state and national measures intended to strengthen the child care sector’s fragile footing. She worked with Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) on Proposition 2, a ballot measure approved by more than 60% of Texas voters in 2023 allowing local governments to give property tax exemptions to qualifying child care centers. She also played a hand in the passage of Proposition A in Travis County in 2024, which implemented a 2.5-cent tax rate increase per $100 valuation to fund child care, after-school and summer programs; 60% of voters approved the measure.
“I had this conversation with myself in 2024, saying, ‘Child care was on the ballot (in Texas), and it won. So now, what if I could embody that and remind people that when we care for our people, our economy is going to take care of itself,’” Brown said.
“We saw (New York City Mayor) Zohran Mamdani run on child care, affordable child care, and other things that families want and need right now. And I believe that I’m someone with lived experience. Even though this is a really red district, I’m a trusted face. I’m a trusted caregiver, and people know I care,” she added, saying she’s neither a Republican nor a Democrat but simply a Texan.
As an independent, Brown’s name will not appear on voters’ primary ballots on March 3, but rather on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
BriTanya Brown, left, is pictured in San Antonio with child care providers and advocates who supported Proposition 2, a statewide ballot measure approved by Texas voters in November 2023 that allowed local governments to provide property tax exemptions to certain child care providers. Courtesy of BriTanya for Texas
Kym Shaw, executive director of the Fort Worth-based Early Learning Alliance, said it’s encouraging to see candidates centering early childhood issues in their campaigns. She noted the high cost of child care for infants in Texas and its strain on family finances. The state’s average cost of infant care is about $10,700 per year, or $892 per month, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
“When individuals with direct child care experience step forward to run for public office, it brings a perspective that is often missing in policy conversations: the on-the-ground realities of providers, families and children,” Shaw said. “When candidates elevate these issues, it signals a growing recognition that early learning is not peripheral; it is essential. It also raises the likelihood that the real challenges faced by families and providers will be understood and meaningfully addressed in future legislative sessions.”
Child care as a voter issue in Texas, D.C.
Beyond the state’s Proposition 2 and Travis County’s Proposition A, child care providers have seen recent wins in Texas, including the $100 million investment in the state’s child care subsidy program approved by lawmakers last year. Although it was a bright spot in political will, inflation weighed down this investment that was intended to expand the program to more Texas families.
Child care has gained momentum in state and national political conversations since COVID-19, when the value of child care and its impact on the economy came to a head. Sara Johnson, a political science lecturer at Southern Methodist University, said the federal government’s infusion of relief funding toward child care during the pandemic also prompted the attention of parents and voters.
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“States got used to more funds from the federal government that were targeted at these child care policies, which was somewhat unusual, and with those funds expiring now, states kind of have to figure out what they’re going to do,” Johnson said.
The expiration of this funding combined with inflation that’s required families to tighten their wallets, in addition to companies reinstating in-person work policies, has continued conversations around child care.
“Child care is always important. Child care is always needed. But this perfect storm coming out of this COVID era is really drawing it more to the forefront than it has been in the past,” Johnson said.
The Employers for Childcare Task Force, a group of more than 70 Texas businesses pushing for child care reform, said candidates addressing child care during the campaign season shows a broader recognition of how it’s tied to the state’s long-term economic growth. Grace, a downtown Fort Worth restaurant, is among the local members of the task force.
BriTanya Brown, former owner and operator of a 24/7 child care program named Our Loving Village in Stamford, reads to a mixed-age group of children in June 2023. Courtesy of Our Loving Village
“Over the past several years, we’ve seen growing momentum to prioritize child care — not just as a family or education issue, but also as an economic and workforce issue — driven in part by Texans coming together through efforts like the Employers for Childcare Task Force to elevate the conversation with data and practical solutions,” said Kelsey Erickson Streufert, co-founder of the Employers for Childcare Task Force and chief public affairs officer of the Texas Restaurant Association.
“Sustained attention to these issues across parties and election cycles helps create the conditions for thoughtful, long-term policy solutions in future legislative sessions,” Erickson Streufert added.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said policy focuses that come out of the state legislature typically take “years and several sessions” to build momentum before reaching their peak.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the kinds of changes to child care policies in Texas, and it certainly provides opportunities politically for people who can address those issues head on,” he said.
Candidates on both sides of the aisle are looking for ways to address the core concerns of constituents, which typically begins at the kitchen table, Rottinghaus said.
“That’s where people pour over bills. It’s where they plan their weeks, where they meet with their families and talk about goals. This is the way that candidates are trying to direct the politics of the moment. They’re trying to find a way to help people. And that is something that the child care policy agenda can help,” he said.
Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.
BOSTON, Mass. — For months, Karian had tried to make it on her own in New York.
After the birth of her second daughter, she was diagnosed with postpartum depression, major depressive disorder and anxiety. A single mother who had moved from Boston to New York about 13 years ago, she often spent days at a time on the couch, unable to do more than handle the basics for her daughters.
“I wasn’t taking care of myself,” she said softly on a recent afternoon. “I was not really present.” The Hechinger Report is not publishing her last name to protect her privacy.
Karian’s mother urged her to move back home to the Boston area and offered to house her and her daughters temporarily. She started working the night shift at a fast food restaurant to save up for her own place while her mother and sister watched her children.
But in a city where fast food wages aren’t enough to pay the rent, her efforts felt futile. And then, a month after moving in with her family, her mother’s landlord told her the apartment was overcrowded and she had to leave. Karian and her girls, then 7 years old and 8 months old, moved into a homeless shelter, where her depression and anxiety worsened.
“I tried my best, but it’s not their home,” said Karian, now 31.
Karian’s children had joined the growing ranks of very young children experiencing homelessness. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of homeless infants and toddlers increased in 48 states and the District of Columbia. The most recent estimates found that in 2023 nearly 450,000 infants and toddlers in the United States were in families that lacked a stable place to live. That was a 23 percent increase compared to 2021, according to a report released last year by the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection in partnership with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan.
The numbers could be even higher, experts worry, because “hidden homeless” children — those who are doubled up in homes with family or friends or living in a hotel — may not be captured in tallies until they start school.
High prices for diapers and formula, the exorbitant cost of child care, the rising cost of living, and rising maternal mental health challenges all contribute to the growing rate of homelessness among very young children, experts say. In 2024, one-third of infants and toddlers were in families that struggled to make ends meet, according to the nonprofit infant and toddler advocacy organization Zero to Three.
“We’re talking about families who have generationally been disadvantaged by circumstance,” said Kate Barrand, president and CEO of Horizons for Homeless Children, a nonprofit that supports homeless families with young children in Massachusetts. “The cost of housing has escalated dramatically. The cost of any kind of program to put a child in, should you have a job, is escalating,” she added. “There are a lot of things that make it really hard for families.”
Children work on an activity in a Horizons classroom. Teachers at Horizons are trained to work with children who have experienced trauma and instability. Credit: Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report
Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues.
Housing instability is dire for anyone, but particularly for young children, whose brains are rapidly growing and developing. Studies show that young children who are homeless often lag behind their peers in language development and literacy and struggle to learn self-regulation skills, like being able to calm themselves when feeling angry or sad or transition calmly to new activities. They also may experience long-term health and learning challenges.
Early childhood programs could provide a critical source of stability and developmental support for these children. But SchoolHouse Connection found only a fraction of homeless children are enrolled in early learning programs, and the percentage who are has decreased over the past few years.
“It’s not just incredibly tragic and sad that infants and toddlers are experiencing homelessness,” said Rahil Briggs, national director of the nonprofit Zero to Three’s HealthySteps program, which works with pediatricians to support the health of babies and toddlers. The first few years are also a “disproportionately important” time in a child’s life, she added, because of the brain development that’s happening.
Karian and her daughters faced new difficulties after they moved into a shelter.
They shared an apartment with another family. If the other family was using the shared common space, Karian tried to give them privacy, which meant keeping her children in the bedroom the three of them shared.
Her older daughter had to change schools, and left without getting to say goodbye to many of her friends. At her new school, her grades dropped. The baby developed a skin condition and there was a bedbug infestation at the shelter. Karian didn’t want to put her on the floor for tummy time. She was desperate to find a home.
“We were in a place where we couldn’t really make noise. I couldn’t really let them be kids,” she said.
The rise in housing insecurity among young children has created more demand for programs created specifically to meet the unique needs of children who are experiencing instability and trauma. Many of these programs offer support to parents as well, through what is called a “two-generation” approach to support and services.
In 2021, in response to ballooning child homelessness rates, Horizons opened the Edgerley Family Horizons Center, an early learning program that serves children from 2 months to 5 years old. While some families find Horizons on their own, many are referred by shelters around the Boston area. The need is great: Edgerley serves more than 250 children, with a waitlist of 200 more. Karian’s younger child was one of those who got a spot soon after the program opened.
Inside Horizons’ large, light-filled building on the corner of a busy street in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, every detail is tailored to the needs of children who have experienced instability. Walls are painted in soothing blues and greens. Each classroom has three teachers to maintain a low child-to-staff ratio. Many of the teachers are bilingual. All educators are trained in how to build relationships with families and gently support children who have experienced trauma.
In response to growing need, in 2021 the Horizons opened the Edgerley Family Horizons Center, an early learning program that serves homeless children from 2 months to 5 years old. Credit: Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report
The starting salary for teachers is $54,200 a year, far more than the national median for childcare workers of $32,050 and the Massachusetts median of about $39,000. That has encouraged more teachers to stay on at the center and provide a sense of security to the children there, said Horizons CEO Barrand.
In the infant room, teacher Herb Hickey, who has worked at Horizons for 13 years, frequently sees infants who are hyperaware, struggle to fall asleep, can’t be soothed easily or cling desperately to whichever adult they attach to first. The goal for the infant teachers, he said, is to be a trusted, responsive adult who can be relied on.
Every day, the teachers in the infant room sing the same songs to the babies. “When they hear our voices constantly, they know they’re in a safe space,” Hickey said. “This is calm.”
Teachers also follow the same familiar routines. The rooms are decorated simply, organized and filled with natural light. Teachers constantly scan the infants for signs of distress.
“We have to be even more responsive,” Hickey said. “When the child starts crying, we don’t have the convenience to say, ‘I know you’re hungry, I’ll get to you.’” He said teachers want even the tiniest babies to learn that “we’re not going to leave you crying.’”
Small nooks throughout the early learning center allow children to retreat into a comfortable setting when they need time to calm big emotions. Credit: Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report
Other needs arise with Horizons’ youngest children: Infants and toddlers living in homeless shelters often lag in gross motor skills. Many spend time on beds rather than on playmats on the floor, or they are kept in car seats or in strollers to keep them safe or from wandering off. That means they’re missing out on all the skills that come from active movement.
Even the arrangement of toys at the center has a purpose. Staff want children to know they can depend on toys being in the same location every day. For many children, those are some of the only items they can play with. Families entering a shelter environment can usually only bring a few bags, with no room for toys or books. A toddler who recently entered a shelter where Horizons runs a playroom came in holding a small empty chip bag, recalled Tara Spalding, Horizons’ chief of advancement and playspace. When a shelter staff member threw it away, the boy was inconsolable. “This is the only toy my child has,” staff recalled the mother saying.
“This just shows the sheer poverty,” said Spalding.
As infant and toddler homelessness has increased, other cities and states have tried to provide more support to affected families and get a better sense of their needs. In Oklahoma, experts say, low wages, a lack of housing and eviction laws that favor landlords have led to rising homelessness rates. State officials are trying to gather better data about homeless families to determine the best use of resources, said Susan Agel, chair of Oklahoma’s Homeless Children and Youth Steering Committee. Their efforts are hampered, however, by the fact that many homeless families fear that their children will be taken away by child protective services because they are homeless.
In 2024, to fill that gap in data, the state launched a residency questionnaire given to every K-12 student that includes new questions about homelessness, including if there are younger children in the home who are not students and may not otherwise be counted in homeless populations. Officials say it isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s a start to get a sense of the severity of family homelessness. “We can’t devise a system for dealing with a problem if we don’t know what the problem is,” said Agel.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, city officials have ramped up efforts to coordinate city agencies to respond to an increase in homelessness among infants and toddlers.
“In general, the families we see more often have younger children. The school offers so much support, and there’s limited daycare access” to get similar support for infants and toddlers, said Tommy Fuston, Community Services and Housing Navigator at Minnehaha County’s Department of Human Services. “If a family has younger children, they’re going to struggle more.”
Each week, officials from the city, the Sioux Falls School District, local early childhood programs and shelters hold a “care meeting” to make sure any homeless families, or families at risk of homelessness, are quickly connected to the right resources and receive follow-up. “We don’t have unlimited resources, but I think it maximizes the resources that we do have,” Fuston said. “We’ve tried to create a village of supportive services to wrap around these folks.” The city relies extensively on private and faith-based donations to help. All shelters in town are privately funded, for example.
A preschool child paints in a classroom at Horizons. Families enrolled in the program receive child care for their children as well as classes and support for parents. Credit: Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report
Karian heard about the child care center run by Horizons from a social worker soon after she and her daughters moved into their Boston-area shelter. In the infant room, her youngest daughter quickly settled into a routine, something Karian said didn’t happen when the baby was watched at night by family members. When staff identified speech and developmental delays, they helped connect Karian to an early intervention program where her daughter could receive therapy. Now 4 years old and in pre-K at Horizons, “she’s thriving,” Karian said. “She’s getting that nourishment.”
Karian also received support. Each family at Horizons is assigned a coach to help parents set personal goals and connect with resources. The organization offers classes in computing, financial management and English, all within the early learning building.
Two months after setting goals with a family coach, Karian earned her GED, with the help of the child care assistance. A few months later, she graduated from a culinary training program. She now works a steady job as a cafeteria manager for a local school district, where she earns a salary with benefits.
After a year in the shelter, her family was approved for subsidized housing and moved into their own apartment. Horizons allows families to stay in its programs for at least two years after they secure housing to make sure they are stable.
Now, Karian has her sights set on eventually opening a restaurant. She also has big dreams for her daughters, something that once seemed out of reach. She wants them to have ambition to “work towards something big,” she said. “I want them to have a dream and be able to achieve it.”
Experts say there are larger policy changes that could help families like Karian’s: increasing the minimum wage, expanding child care options like Head Start, which saves a portion of seats for homeless children, and offering more affordable housing to low-income families, to start.
Providing more federal money to the programs that help poor families pay for child care could also help. Those programs require states to prioritize homeless children and give them the first opportunity to access that money.
While important, experts argue, these solutions shouldn’t need to exist in the first place.
“We should be able to come to an agreement as a society that we should prioritize keeping families with infants and toddlers in their homes,” said Melissa Boteach, chief policy officer at Zero to Three. “Babies shouldn’t be homeless.”
Contact staff writer Jackie Mader at 212-678-3562 or mader@hechingerreport.org.
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Children dance and play while being cared for at the Center for Transforming Lives Arlington Child Development Center on March 28, 2025.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Child care programs in Tarrant County faced the potential for a delay in subsidy funding last week in the wake of a national crackdown on child care funding, putting families and early educators in limbo. Now, local providers are breathing sighs of relief.
Funding is no longer expected to be interrupted to providers who serve children with subsidies after officials initially warned them of potential delays from new “defend the spend” requirements. The additional layer of red tape was announced nationwide after fraud allegations arose in Minnesota. States draw down the federal funding that eventually reaches child care providers who serve families qualifying for financial assistance.
The update means Tarrant County families will continue to access the child care they need for parents to go to work while providers, typically operating on thin margins, can keep their staff and services intact.
Paulette Byars, owner of Perfect Praise Academy in Fort Worth’s Morningside neighborhood, said funding delays would’ve created a negative domino effect to all sides of her program. Although the period of uncertainty was short, she did have to inform her staff of potential cuts to their work hours.
Byars said she’s relieved it’s no longer an issue, as about 60% of the families she serves receive this financial assistance that goes toward her payroll and other costs.
“If the families don’t have child care, they can’t work, and they’re already struggling. A lot of families are low income, they’re already making a little bit over minimum wage. So it would kind of be like a domino effect. We can’t provide child care, we’re not getting paid. We can’t pay our staff as well,” Byars explained. “We’re just grateful that everything has kind of come into play, and everything’s okay right now.”
The Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County — one of multiple workforce boards statewide that distributes this funding on behalf of the Texas Workforce Commission — shared Friday that subsidy payments are expected to be issued as normal, which is every two weeks. The update comes four days after the workforce board cautioned providers of possible delays as they awaited more information and clarity on what the new federal requirements would entail. The local workforce board assured providers it would share more information as it comes forward.
“(Texas Workforce Commission) has submitted additional (child care funding) requests to (the Administration for Children and Families), and those requests are currently pending ACF approval. TWC is working with ACF on providing any updated justifications necessary to process funding requests for the child care program,” according to the Friday update. “Neither (the) Board nor Child Care Services providers are being asked to provide any additional documentation at this time.”
A spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission, which oversees the state’s child care subsidy program, said in a statement that the agency is dedicated to preserving the financial integrity of the program.
“TWC takes fraud, waste, and abuse in the child care program very seriously. TWC is dedicated to continuing to root out waste, fraud, and abuse that might occur despite our strong fraud protections,” said spokesperson Sarah Fischer.
Other child care providers, advocates react to new federal rules
Monicha Neal, owner of Treasure Chest Learning Center in east Fort Worth, said she was still planning to provide care to families to the best of her ability while trusting that state officials would find a solution to keep the funding flowing.
Neal and Byars, of Perfect Praise Academy, said there’s already a system in place for tracking attendance of students who receive subsidies that’s regularly submitted to the local workforce board. Parents sign-in daily with an identification code or their personal information. Neal noted that her program keeps attendance records virtually and on paper.
“Sometimes our internet is not up and running, so that way the parents already know that they have to sign in and out on paper. The teachers are signing in and out on paper as well. So we at least have two systems for sure, because technology is not always working,” Neal said.
Tim Kaminski, president of the Texas Licensed Child Care Association, reiterated the relief felt by child care providers moving forward. The association will be working with the Texas Workforce Commission to give updates to providers if subsidy payment schedules are changed in the future, he said.
“The ‘Workforce Behind the Workforce’ can continue to provide a safe and quality learning environment for our youngest Texans and their hardworking parents,” Kaminski said.
Walter Gilliam, executive director of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska, compared the new federal requirements to closing down every grocery store in a state because a few cashiers stole money. He noted fraud allegations need to be taken seriously, but “collective punishment isn’t accountability.”
“What we really need to be focusing on is how we make systems easier and clearer so that fraud doesn’t happen in the first place. And right now, the amount of paperwork that child care providers have to go through is a significant deterrent for people even providing this essential service that makes it possible for other people to go to work,” he said.
Gilliam called child care an essential infrastructure that every state needs to have in order to have a thriving economy. The implementation process of the new federal rules have prompted panic to a fragile early education system, he said.
“When information comes out this piecemeal and this reactively, it has a tendency — a predictable tendency — for others to not quite be sure what to make out of it. And that is what sets up panic and concern. In most cases, it’s completely avoidable,” Gilliam said. “I realize that we always have to be thoughtful about crime and fraud, but it should not be done in a way that puts the expense of that policing on babies.”
Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.
A federal judge in New York has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to freeze $10 billion in child-care funds in five Democrat-led states including California.
The ruling Friday afternoon capped a tumultuous stretch that began earlier this week when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told California officials and those in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York that it would freeze federal funding over fraud concerns.
On Thursday the states sued the administration in federal court in Manhattan. The states sought a temporary restraining order, asking the court to block the funding freeze and the administration’s demands for large volumes of administrative data.
An attorney for the states argued Friday morning that there was an immediate need for funding — and that withholding it would cause chaos by depriving families of their ability to pay for child care, and would harm child-care providers who would lose income.
In a brief ruling, Judge Arun Subramanian said that “good cause has been shown for the issuance of a temporary restraining order.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal government’s effort has been viewed as a broad attack on social services in California, and jolted tens of thousands of working families and the state’s child-care industry. Providers told The Times that the funding freeze could imperil child-care centers, many of which operate on slim margins.
“The underscoring issue is that child care and these other federally funded social services programs are major family supports,” said Nina Buthee, executive director of EveryChild California. “They are essential infrastructure that our communities need and depend on, and should not be political tools. So the fact that this judge went in and blocked this very dramatic freeze, I think is only a good thing.”
In a trio of Jan. 6 letters addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was concerned there had been “potential for extensive and systemic fraud” in child care and other social services programs that rely on federal funding, and had “reason to believe” that the state was “illicitly providing illegal aliens” with benefits.
The letters did not provide evidence to support the claims. State officials have said the suggestions of fraud are unsubstantiated.
Newsom has said he welcomes any fraud investigations the federal government might conduct, but said cutting off funding hurts families who rely on the aid. According to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, about $1.4 billion in federal child-care funding was frozen per the letters from Health and Human Services.
“You want to support families? You believe in families? Then you believe in supporting child care and child-care workers in the workforce,” Newsom told MS NOW.
After Subramanian issued the ruling, Newsom’s press office said on X that “the feds went ghost-hunting for widespread ‘fraud’ (with no evidence) — and ended up trying to rip child care and food from kids.”
“It took a federal judge less than 24 hours to shut down Trump’s politically motivated child care cuts in California,” the account posted.
In instituting the freeze, Health and Human Services had said it would review how the federal money had been used by the state, and was restricting access to additional money amid its inquiries. The federal government asked for various data, including attendance documentation for child care. It also demanded beefed-up fiscal accountability requirements.
“Again and again, President Trump has shown a willingness to throw vulnerable children, seniors, and families under the bus if he thinks it will advance his vendetta against Democratic-led states,” Bonta said in a statement following the ruling. “Cutting funding for childcare and other family assistance is cruel, reckless, and most importantly, illegal.”
For Laura Pryor, research director at the California Budget & Policy Center, it is “a sigh of relief.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta held a rare evening press conference Thursday, announcing new legal action against the Trump administration. Bonta said California was joining other states suing the administration over a funding freeze for child care and family services. The other states taking part in the lawsuit include New York, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, which Bonta notes are all led by Democrats.Across all five states, around $10 billion is frozen, affecting the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Child Care and Development Fund, and Social Services Block Grant programs. Approximately $5 billion of the funds are frozen in California. The Trump administration claims there is widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer money in the five states. Bonta and his office allege that the funding freeze violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Separation of Powers by freezing funds already approved by Congress, and the U.S. Constitution’s Appropriations Clause and Spending Clause.”There’s a process for concerns about waste fraud and abuse to occur,” Bonta said during the press conference. “This is the federal government, without any evidence sent to us, cited to in their letter, and I don’t believe they have any, saying that there is fraud in these five Democratic states’ programs and cutting off all funding. And I think it’s very telling as they are cutting off the funding, they are asking for information. You usually ask for the information first.”This marks the 53rd lawsuit by California against the Trump administration in less than a year.Watch the full press conference in the video below: See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
California Attorney General Rob Bonta held a rare evening press conference Thursday, announcing new legal action against the Trump administration.
Bonta said California was joining other states suing the administration over a funding freeze for child care and family services.
The other states taking part in the lawsuit include New York, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, which Bonta notes are all led by Democrats.
Across all five states, around $10 billion is frozen, affecting the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Child Care and Development Fund, and Social Services Block Grant programs. Approximately $5 billion of the funds are frozen in California.
The Trump administration claims there is widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer money in the five states.
Bonta and his office allege that the funding freeze violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Separation of Powers by freezing funds already approved by Congress, and the U.S. Constitution’s Appropriations Clause and Spending Clause.
“There’s a process for concerns about waste fraud and abuse to occur,” Bonta said during the press conference. “This is the federal government, without any evidence sent to us, cited to in their letter, and I don’t believe they have any, saying that there is fraud in these five Democratic states’ programs and cutting off all funding. And I think it’s very telling as they are cutting off the funding, they are asking for information. You usually ask for the information first.”
This marks the 53rd lawsuit by California against the Trump administration in less than a year.
Watch the full press conference in the video below:
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About six years ago, an apprentice training to be a machinist in Washington state told her supervisor she would probably have to drop out of the training program after having her baby: She couldn’t find child care that accommodated her shift.
It was one of the first challenges Shana Peschek was tasked with solving when she became executive director of the Machinists Institute, which trains workers for jobs in the aerospace, manufacturing and automotive industries all over the state.
Peschek knew it was essential to do something for workers with young children.
“That worst shift, the new hires are going to get it. The new hires are generally younger people. They have little kids or they are going to want a little kid,” Peschek said.
“It’s beyond the cost of child care,” she said. “If they can’t find anywhere, we’re going to lose them.”
As Peschek worked on a way to address the situation, she also wondered how she could include apprenticeship in the solution. The answer: incorporating early educator apprenticeships into a custom-built child care center tailored to the trade union’s needs. Last month, The Hechinger Report wrote about San Francisco’s child care apprenticeship program.
“Apprenticeship is my jam,” said Peschek, who emphasized that apprenticeship is a mode of education, not limited to any specific profession. While the word apprentice is often associated with roles like machinists, it is just the term for an educational path that includes paid, on-the-job training. Early educator apprenticeships do just that, providing classes and training alongside paid work experience to help hopeful teachers earn required credentials and get full-time jobs. “I want that pathway available for our teachers and assistant teachers,” she said.
With a combination of institute money, grants and donations, the Machinists Institute bought land and is constructing Little Wings Early Learning Academy in Everett, Washington. Its name is inspired by the local economy, which is powered in part by a nearby Boeing factory. The center will serve workers in the trade union, who will be able to send their young children for care starting as early as 4 a.m. through as late as midnight. Care will also be available on weekends, to accommodate a range of shifts. It is scheduled to open this spring.
Machinists, maritime industry workers and other local tradespeople and apprentices will pay a discounted rate for child care, which will also be available to area residents to enroll their kids.
Peschek’s hopes are high, for all of the apprentices the center will involve.
That’s in part because of the experience some early educator apprentices have had. Apprenticeships have been a part of the trades for centuries, but they are relatively novel in education.
The option changed the course of Carlota Hernández de Cruz’s life. For years, with only an elementary school education from when she grew up in Mexico, she was the primary caregiver for her three children while her husband was the breadwinner. When her youngest child was still in child care, at a California Head Start program run by an area YMCA, she began working a few hours a day as a parent intern at the center.
She eventually encountered Pamm Shaw, who created one of the first early educator apprenticeship programs in the country for the YMCA of the East Bay, in California’s Alameda County. Shaw encouraged Hernández de Cruz to take classes and work toward becoming an early childhood teacher.
“I’m originally from Mexico,” Hernández de Cruz said, remembering her apprehension. “I came with zero English.” But Shaw was convincing.
Hernández de Cruz took classes, one or two at a time, balancing them with motherhood and homekeeping duties. Then her husband got sick and could no longer work. It took years, but she completed the courses for her associate degree. Just a few months before graduation, her husband died.
Carlota Hernández de Cruz, director of Early Childhood Impact at the YMCA of the East Bay, entered the child care field through an apprenticeship. Credit: Emmanuel Guillén Lozano for The Hechinger Report
Hernández de Cruz, now 53, knew that although what she had accomplished was monumental, it wasn’t enough. Thanks to her apprenticeship, however, her bachelor’s degree coursework was paid for, even though it was sometimes a struggle to keep up with the requirements of online courses and lectures in English, while solo parenting and working.
In 2019, Hernández de Cruz earned that bachelor’s degree but turned down a job running a child care center. She wasn’t ready. When she was approached again in 2021 about a director role, at the center where she was working, she agreed. There have been ups and downs: That center closed and she was back to teaching for a while. But now she runs the Vera Casey Center, a Head Start site for infants and toddlers in Berkeley that is part of the YMCA of the East Bay.
“I feel I can say financially I’m stable,” Hernández de Cruz said, and she said she is proud of herself and her children. Her kids grew up watching their mother work and study hard and have had opportunities she didn’t when she was younger, even though she said they all faltered, and flunked a few classes, when their father died. Her younger daughter just graduated from a nursing program and her older daughter completed a bachelor’s degree in child development and is now pursuing a master’s degree. Both daughters live at home with her, as do her parents. (Her son, she said, is still taking classes and finding his way.) “I’m stable but he’s not here with us,” Hernández de Cruz said of her husband, but “being in the classroom with kids, it helped me to heal. That’s what I feel at work. I still feel happy every day.”
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Teacher Carolyn Galloway plays with Eric, 2, at the Center for Transforming Lives Arlington Child Development Center on March 28.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Tarrant County child care providers could see delays in subsidy payments from the state after Trump administration officials announced tighter restrictions on child care funding, placing providers in a tough financial position.
Local providers who enroll qualifying low-income families with child care scholarships, which offset tuition costs, were notified on Monday of a potential delay in Administration of Children and Families funding after federal officials announced a requirement that all U.S. states must have “a justification and a receipt or photo evidence” to receive it moving forward. The additional red tape from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comes amid fraud allegations at Minnesota child care centers.
Tarrant County officials who disburse this ACF funding told providers it’s unclear how long delays might be.
“We are working with (the Texas Workforce Commission) to get access to (Child Care and Development Fund) funds as quickly as possible for the next payment cycle (Jan. 12-25). Our goal is to minimize any impact this new federal requirement may cause,” Child Care Management Services program director Rita Morris said in the Monday notice to providers.
More than 400 statewide providers discussed the development on Monday in a Zoom call organized by the Texas Licensed Child Care Association. Tim Kaminski, president of the association, encouraged providers to contact their representatives about what the ripple effects would be to their businesses if funding is delayed. Providers were also encouraged to make their voices heard at the next workforce board meeting in their region, which is the network of local offices that receive the subsidy funding from the Texas Workforce Commission that’s then distributed to providers.
Awaiting the release of more information, questions were raised about whether reserves existed to cushion providers if federal funding delays became a reality. Providers also wondered how state officials would follow federal requirements of providing “photo evidence” with almost 150,000 children being served statewide on a daily basis.
“This has been a knee-jerk reaction by the federal government to a situation in one state,” Kaminski told providers. “You can’t cut off our knees and expect that we’re going to stay open. We can’t subsidize the subsidy program, and we’ve been doing that for too many years. So contact your reps, contact your senators.”
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Tarrant County providers that operate multiple child care programs, including Child Care Associates and the Center for Transforming Lives, said they’re waiting on additional guidance from state officials.
Gov. Abbott announces investigation in Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott also announced on Monday that he’s directing state agencies, the Texas Workforce Commission and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, to investigate potential child care funding fraud. In a letter informing agency leaders of the probe, he noted “strong anti-fraud processes” were already instilled, including routine audits and in-person site visits, but more can be done to protect children and taxpayers. The state’s percentage of “improper payment rates” is 0.43%, Abbott said.
“Recently, the Trump Administration and independent journalists have uncovered potential systematic fraud in subsidized child care systems in states like Minnesota,” Abbott said in a statement. “Such fraud will never be tolerated in Texas. Today, I directed Texas state agencies to take proactive steps to prevent, detect, and eliminate misuse of taxpayer funds to protect the integrity of Texas’ Child Care Services Program.”
Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.
Minnesota officials have until next week to hand over information on providers and parents who receive federal child care funds that the Trump administration contends have been used fraudulently or risk losing federal funding. State officials said Friday recent inspections showed several childcare centers accused of fraud by a right-wing influencer were “operating as expected.”
In an email sent Friday to child care providers and shared with The Associated Press by multiple providers, Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families said it has until Jan. 9 to provide information about recipients of the funds.
The announcement earlier this week by the Trump administration that it would freeze child care funds to Minnesota and the rest of the states comes after a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which many defendants were Somali, as were many of those running spotlighted childcare centers.
Allegations of fraud at the child care centers went viral recently when a right-wing influencer posted a video claiming there was fraud taking place, putting Minnesota and some other states in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.
State officials said investigators did spot checks and reviews of nine centers this week in response to the influencer’s video posted last week, and found no operational issues. One center was not yet open at the time, and there are ongoing investigations at four of them.
The email sent Friday instructed providers and families who rely on the frozen federal child care program to continue the program’s “licensing and certification requirements and practices as usual.” It does not say that recipients themselves need to take any action or provide any information.
“We recognize the alarm and questions this has raised,” the email said. “We found out about the freezing of funds at the same time everyone else did on social media.”
The state agency added that it “did not receive a formal communication from the federal government until late Tuesday night,” which was after Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill posted about the freeze on X. All 50 states will have to provide additional levels of verification and administrative data before they receive more funding from the Child Care and Development Fund, which is designed to make child care affordable for low-income families.
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing Wednesday to discuss the allegations of fraudulent use of federal funds in Minnesota. An HHS spokesperson said that the child care fraud hotline put up by the federal agency earlier this week has received more than 200 tips.
Minnesota has drawn ire from Republicans and the Trump administration over other fraud accusations.
Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams told Fox News on Friday that his agency sent Minnesota a letter last month asking for information on the child care program and other welfare programs by Dec. 26, but didn’t get a response. The state did not immediately respond to a request for comment. President Donald Trump has also targeted the state’s large Somali community with immigration enforcement actions and called them “garbage.”
Minnesota Democrats say the Trump administration is playing politics and hurting families and children as a result. Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families said in a press release Friday that inspectors conduct regular oversight activities for the child care program, noting that there are 55 related open investigations involving providers.
“DCYF remains committed to fact-based reviews that stop fraud, protect children, support families, and minimize disruption to communities that rely on these essential services,” the department said. “Distribution of unvetted or deceptive claims and misuse of tip lines can interfere with investigations, create safety risks for families, providers, and employers, and has contributed to harmful discourse about Minnesota’s immigrant communities.”
Maria Snider, director of a child care center in St. Paul and vice president of advocacy group Minnesota Child Care Association, said providers currently get paid at least three weeks after services are provided. Some 23,000 children and 12,000 families receive funding from the targeted child care program each month on average, according to the state.
“For a lot of centers, we’re already running on a thin margin,” she said. “Even centers where 10 to 15% of their kids are on childcare assistance, that’s a dip in your income.”
Any child who attends a child care center with attendees who receive federal funding could be impacted, Snider said.
The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, federal officials have said.
According to the Friday email from Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, HHS sent a letter to Minnesota asking for data from 2022 to 2025, including identifying information of all recipients of the child care funds, a list of all providers who receive the funds, how much they receive and “information related to alleged fraud networks and oversight failures.” It’s unclear whether Minnesota already has the data the administration is asking for.
HHS said five child care centers that receive funds from the child care program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families would have to provide “specific documentation” such as attendance, inspections and assessments, according to the email.
HHS said it would provide Minnesota with more information by Jan. 5, but the state agency wrote that it’s unclear what kinds of funding restrictions it faces.
“Our teams are working hard to analyze the legal, fiscal, and other aspects of this federal action,” the email says. “We do not know the full impact.”
A viral video has put a national spotlight on Minnesota’s child care network as allegations of widespread fraud swirl. Records show Minnesota has been trying to improve oversight of the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) payment system for more than a decade.
The day after Christmas, Nick Shirley released a video accusing nearly a dozen child care centers of taking government assistance without actually providing a service in Minneapolis. The video primarily features him and a man only referred to as “David” going to various centers, demanding entry or information, then stating that the center was empty.
Shirley’s central claim is that each day care is billing the CCAP for children who are not really there; WCCO found the video’s broad claims are not proven.
While federal and state investigators are now looking into each of the centers featured by Shirley, audits completed in the past 10 years show that Minnesota has lacked the teeth to properly vet attendance records and go after possible fraudsters proactively.
In May of 2025, the federal Office of the Inspector General released an audit of 200 randomly selected child care assistance payments from 2023. The agency found that in 38 instances, “Minnesota did not comply with requirements related to attendance and payment for services.” The auditors extrapolated that to mean that the state was making at least one error in 11% of payments made to 1,155 centers in 2023.
“Minnesota’s limited oversight of attendance documentation at childcare centers resulted in overpayments to providers,” the audit states. “A lack of oversight to ensure accurate and complete attendance documentation could increase the risk of fraud, waste and abuse to the CCAP program.”
The Office of the Inspector General made recommendations, including “strengthening its monitoring program to include routine reviews of CCAP attendance records for accuracy.”
In a response included in the audit, the Department of Health and Human Services agreed with this recommendation and others. DHS wrote that it is expanding what’s called the Early and Often Program, which “aims to ensure that new child care centers meet the requirements of CCAP by increased monitoring of their attendance record-keeping practices and compliance with state statutes.”
Months prior, in January 2025, Department of Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown acknowledged there are gaps in their fraud detection system when it comes to accurate attendance numbers.
“We certainly need to investigate that more thoroughly to ensure that agencies do have as broad authority as possible to investigate fraud and act on all aspects of fraud. I don’t know that that’s fully present,” Brown said.
In 2019, a report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor showed that the Minnesota Department of Human Services established an investigatory team to go after child care providers suspected of fraud in 2013. The office reviewed explosive claims of fraud from 2013 to 2018, ultimately finding that prosecutors were able to “prove” between $5 to $6 million worth of fraud in those years.
More than a dozen Minnesotans were charged in state and federal cases, but not everyone was convicted. The OLA could not provide an exact estimate, but the agency believed that the true extent of the fraud was greater than the $6 million figure. The OLA spoke to prosecutors who said that there were sometimes issues with the quality of evidence gathered by DHS.
The OLA stated in this audit that the review had a “limited scope … We did not evaluate CCAP, nor did we fully assess the state’s efforts to prevent, detect, and investigate CCAP fraud.”
Consistent across both reports is the recommendation to install electronic attendance gathering tools to ensure that numbers are recorded in real time, reducing the ability for centers to report false numbers.
At a rally designed to push back on the Trump administration’s decision to freeze all federal CCAP payments this week, DFL Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn said that those systems would be up and running this summer.
At that same rally, providers scoffed at the idea that the current system is simple to defraud. Maria Snyder, a St. Paul area provider, said that she is consistently getting surprise visits and audits from state inspectors who rigorously check her attendance records. She said that you can get citations on complete technicalities.
“Imagine my surprise at this narrative that it’s so easy to scam child care assistance,” Snyder said.
At a February 2025 meeting of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, officials said that DHS has a team of four investigators who look into CCAP.
Since 2020, the team has recovered about $2.4 million, referring on average five cases annually for criminal investigations since 2021. During the same time frame, DHS has stopped payments to 79 CCAP providers, according to the committee.
CBS News found that of the day cares that Shirley visited, all but two are licensed. State inspectors visited each of the licensed centers within the past six months, issuing citations related to violations like safety and staff training, but not fraud.
One of the day cares, which showed WCCO security footage that which owners said proves children were present the day that Shirley was there, said that DHS asked for two months’ worth of attendance records. The results of these two investigations are not yet public.
“We have turned off the money spigot, and we are finding the fraud,” Deputy Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Jim O’Neill said.
While some of the day cares included in the now viral video are pushing back against accusations of fraud, other providers are worried that their businesses will go under as a result of the blanket freeze on funding. Dozens rallied at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on Wednesday, including Monique Stumon, the director of School Readiness in Minneapolis. Her day care has been open since 2009; no one is accusing her of fraud, she said. But she explained that without CCAP funding, she wouldn’t be able to keep the doors open for more than a month.
“When you get people that are being devastated that had nothing to do with it, how is that right?” Stumon asked, “it is affecting my staff, it is affecting my families. They have to go to work. If we’re not open, what are they gonna do?”
Providers said it’s not clear when exactly the money would stop flowing in, explaining that the money is approved on a 21-day cyclical basis.
DFL Minnesota State House Representative and Children and Families Committee Co-Chair Carlie Kotyza-Wittuhn was involved with the rally, condemning the Trump Administration for responding to alleged fraud with a blanket policy that would hurt clean operations.
“Fraud prevention is about policy. It’s about solutions and not spectacle. But everything we’ve seen from the federal government this week is about politics,” Kotyza-Wittuhn said.
Carin Mrotz, a member of the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office appearing on behalf of AG Keith Ellison, took questions and read a statement attributed to Ellison himself, who said that the funding freeze “may well be illegal.”
“The Trump administration is threatening funding for the essential childcare services that countless families across Minnesota rely on — apparently all on the basis of one video on social media. To say I am outraged is an understatement,” the statement reads in part, “Fraud is unacceptable and individuals responsible for it should be prosecuted. I’ve been holding fraudsters and scammers accountable for years and I will continue to do so.”
Republican Rep. Nolan West, who co-chairs the Children and Families Committee with Rep. Kotyza-Wittuhn, is placing the blame for the potential fallout with Gov. Tim Walz and state Democrats.
“Minnesotans are rightfully angry and fed up with the massive fraud in our public assistance programs. Billions of tax dollars meant to help people have been lost to fraudsters. Despite repeated warnings from nonpartisan auditors, Governor Walz and the Democrats did not adequately address these concerns. Now we face the consequences of their inaction,” West said in a statement to WCCO, “We want those who truly need assistance to get it. I hope the Walz administration finally cooperates with the federal government—rather than fighting it—to process payments quickly for legitimate providers.”
Shirley’s video reached top members of the Trump Administration, with people like Vice President J.D. Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel responding to his work on social media. O’Neill referenced the video in the announcement on the CPAP funding freeze, stating that the agency has identified the centers mentioned in the video and demanded that the state carry out a “comprehensive audit” of them, including “attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.”
CBS News conducted its own analysis of the day care centers mentioned by Shirley. All but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months. The analysis found dozens of citations for safety, cleanliness and other issues, but no recorded evidence of fraud. Some of the day care centers featured in Shirley’s video have pushed back against the fraud allegations. One of the facilities, ABC Learning Center, shared surveillance videos with WCCO that showed parents dropping children off on the same day as Shirley’s visit.
According to providers at Wednesday’s rally, license inspectors with the state will show up randomly. Those visits will include questions about attendance records as inspectors look to see if rules revolving around safety and individual child care plans are being followed. What’s still unclear is how often the state is asking fraud-specific questions of day cares who receive funding. The Department of Homeland Security made visits to each of the day cares in Shirley’s video on Monday. The state said that it did the same; the results of both of those sweeps are not yet public.
After the Trump administration paused federal assistance to child care centers in Minnesota, parents are now wondering if their kids’ day care is in jeopardy, as the government investigates fraud claims. Jonah Kaplan has been following this developing story.
A Minneapolis day care says that vandals damaged the facility early this week and took information about employees and children from their records, after a YouTube video purporting to expose fraud among day cares in the Twin Cities metro area went viral.
Officials with the Nokomis Daycare Center in Minneapolis claim that vandals broke in early Tuesday morning, between 3 and 6 a.m. Nokomis was not among the day cares featured in the viral video, posted by rightwing influencer Nick Shirley.
Vandals got into the day care through cinder blocks, according to the day care. It appears the vandals first tried to saw into the door of a Family Dollar store next door in the shopping center, but that didn’t work, officials said.
The manager claims those who broke in went straight to the office, stealing information about the many children who were taken care of there, as well as employees’ information. Minneapolis police said, “No loss was (initially) reported to officers, but late this morning the original reporting party reached out to MPD with additional information about the case, including the loss.”
WCCO checked with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which does not show any record of the facility having committed any fraud. The records, which are in the public record, show other minor violations.
“We are not a part of any harmful things that are being said,” day care manager Nasrulah Mohamed said. “Our licensing has been good, even the inspections. I want to say no intimidation is going to stop us.”
The video, posted to Shirley’s YouTube account, showed the influencer visiting various day cares and claiming them to be empty. According to X, the video has been seen in excess of 120 million times.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday said it’s freezing child care funds for Minnesota, explicitly citing Shirley’s fraud allegations. Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill demanded that Minnesota officials carry out a “comprehensive audit” of the day care facilities featured in the video.
CBS News and WCCO conducted their own analyses of the day care centers. Contrary to Shirley’s claims, all but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all have been visited by state regulators within the last six months.
On Dec. 16, 2025, security footage shows various people throughout the day dropping off young children at the state-licensed ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis.
That same day, YouTuber Nick Shirley arrived and claimed that the day care was among many in Minnesota that were empty.
It’s the latter video that has gone viral, creating a new political lightning rod as Minnesota grapples with various investigations and accusations related to widespread fraud.
In this instance, Shilrey claims that nearly a dozen day cares are taking government funding without actually providing a day care service.
In Shirley’s video, which X reports has more than 116 million views, the rightwing influencer visits various day cares, including the ABC Learning Center. The video asserts that the day care is always empty.
On Tuesday afternoon, WCCO found more than a dozen children at the day care working with several adult staff members. Director Ahmed Hasan said that they were working on basic language and math skills.
“Every day is like this,” Hasan said.
On the day Shirley came to the center, the time stamps on the day care’s security tapes show that he arrived around noon. WCCO reviewed security footage showing families evidently arriving to drop off their children earlier that morning and later in the afternoon.
When Shirley knocked on the door, he seemed to fabricate a reason for being there, asking to check a child into the day care. A staff member responds verbally but doesn’t let him in; Hasan said that they can’t allow strangers into an active day care. In addition, he said that Shirley had a team of up to eight people with him. Some were masked, according to Hasan, which set off alarm bells for his staff members, given recent ICE activity.
CBS News conducted its own analysis of nearly a dozen day care centers mentioned by Shirley: all but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months.
One, Sweet Angel Child Care, Inc., was subject to an unannounced inspection as recently as Dec. 4. CBS News’ review also found dozens of citations related to safety, cleanliness, equipment and staff training, among other violations, but there was no recorded evidence of fraud.
Gov. Tim Walz responded on X, stating in part, “We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
State inspectors last visited ABC Learning Center on Nov. 7 for a license review. While there are ongoing citations related to a child’s allergy and an individual child’s care program, the state did not flag fraudulent activity.
Umi Hassan, the day care’s day-to-day operator, said that she believes Shirley’s work was entirely politically motivated. She noted that both she and Hasan are Somali-American. In recent weeks, she’s among many in the community who have felt compelled to carry their U.S. passports everywhere they go to avoid getting swept up in ICE operations.
“We pay our taxes. We do whatever we can to be a law-abiding citizen. When one Somali does something wrong, we all get collective punishment,” Hassan said.
Since Shirley’s video went viral, Hasan said that he’s been getting constant phone calls, many of them coming from out of state. He showed WCCO a few of the voicemails. Some had a seemingly innocent premise with people asking if the day care had space for their own children. One was threatening, with a caller telling Hasan he’s excited to see him get arrested.
A large portion of Shirley’s video focused on the Quality Learning Center, which he also alleged was empty. The owner of the building where the day care operates, Fardowsa Ali, said that she is simply a landlord. While she said she has nothing to do with the day care’s day-to-day, she said she, too, is getting phone calls linked to Shirley’s video.
“People are calling me, my phone, because when they Google the address, it’s showing my kitchen and it goes straight to my website,” Ali said.
WCCO spoke to Fatima Noor on Tuesday, a mother who said she’s been sending her children to Quality Learning Center multiple times a week for the past few months. Day care operators declined to speak with WCCO.
MINNEAPOLIS — Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
The action comes after years of investigation that began with the $300 million scheme at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.
A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants are Somali Americans, they said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said then that fraud will not be tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”
Noem on Monday posted a video on the social platform X showing DHS officers going into an unidentified business and questioning the person working behind the counter. Noem said that officers were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.”
“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement posted.
The action comes a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the agency had “surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”
Patel said that previous fraud arrests in Minnesota were “just the tip of a very large iceberg.”
President Donald Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases to date.
In recent weeks, tensions have been high between state and federal enforcement in the area as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is the largest in the country.
Among those running schemes to get funds for child nutrition, housing services and autism programs, 82 of the 92 defendants are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.
Walz spokesperson Claire Lancaster said that the governor has worked for years to “crack down on fraud” and was seeking more authority from the Legislature to take aggressive action. Walz has supported criminal prosecutions and taken a number of other steps, including strengthening oversight and hiring an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, Lancaster said.
Amid all this, there were some promising steps taken, especially at the state level, to elevate children’s issues and pay for programs that support the earliest years of life. Here are five highlights, including a few you may have missed:
New Mexico introduced universal child care. New Mexico was the first state in the country to roll out universal child care to every family, regardless of income. Experts are cautiously optimistic, and acknowledge the state likely has some kinks to work out. One New Mexico source I spoke to said she’s especially worried that wealthier families will snatch up spots if guardrails aren’t put in place to prioritize certain populations, including children with disabilities. Another advocate told me she is worried that the wages for early childhood educators are still too low. This is a story that will continue to play out over the next few years, and will be watched carefully. Still, in a country that has long underfunded early learning, experts are hopeful that other states will follow suit and invest more in the child care industry in ways that support the child care staff and families.
New Jersey, which leads the nation in excluding young children with disabilities, committed to investigate how to improve inclusive practices: Earlier this year, a Hechinger Report investigation found New Jersey is the worst in the nation at making sure young students with disabilities are learning alongside their peers for at least 80 percent of the day, which is a federal metric for inclusion. After our series was published, a council that advises New Jersey education officials on special education issues announced it will investigate inclusion rates for young children and look at how state educators and administrators are trained.
States and municipalities invested in early childhood: Cincinnati, Montana and California’s Alameda County increased their support for early learning this year, said Emmy Liss, a researcher and policy consultant for the think tank New America’s New Practice Lab. In San Antonio, the city’s pre-K program expanded this year to serve infants and toddlers. In Colorado, voters approved new “taxing districts” that will raise sales tax for early childhood programs. “We see this consistent pattern of mayors, would-be mayors, county officials, saying, ‘Our families can’t withstand this anymore, and we have the power and the mandate from our community to invest in early childhood,’” Liss said. “I feel optimistic because of that.”
Some states expanded family-friendly policies: After reporting by Hechinger contributor Sarah Carr this year found few parents are made aware of their infant’s rights to early intervention services, Illinois passed a law requiring that families with infants who stay in the NICU are connected to those early therapies. In Colorado, state officials added NICU leave to the state’s paid family medical leave program. Minnesota policymakers are on the cusp of launching their state’s paid family leave program.
Pittsburgh embraced a citywide play-based initiative: After decades of research that shows the importance of play for healthy development, a new initiative in Pittsburgh is putting research into action. After funding several years of play-based projects around the city, the Let’s Play, PGH program, funded by the nonprofit Remake Learning and the Grable and Henry L. Hillman foundations, rolled out permanent play-based experiences this year. Those include a “Clayground,” where families can try hands-on clay sculpting, and a “Discovery Tree,” an indoor structure with various play and learning features. “I think society, especially in education, we’re moving away from valuing play in a way that it’s often spoken of more in a pejorative sense, like there’s more serious things we have to do,” said Tyler Samstag, executive director of Remake Learning. “But there’s this rich research around the importance of play,” he added. And, “there’s a kind of reeling back from the pandemic era of always being in front of a screen.”
I also asked a few early childhood experts what they plan to watch for in 2026:
I’m watching the dual trends of state momentum for universal child care proposals against the budgetary headwinds states are facing as a result of economic policies and H.R. 1 [the “big, beautiful bill”].
— Elliot Haspel, senior fellow at Capita
The early care and education community will have the opportunity to stake out bold policy positions, like those we saw in New Mexico, New York, Connecticut, Montana and Vermont this past year, while facing the challenge of protecting children, families and educators from federal policies that will wreak havoc on safety net programs and state budgets.
— Albert Wat, deputy director of advocacy and impact at the Alliance for Early Success
I am paying attention to whether there are signs of even a minor shift away from this dominant narrative — that something close to universal child care is the ‘true goal,’ which we now seem to be accepting without question. My concern is that the needs of young children will once again get blotted out by the needs of grown-ups, the needs of the economy, the needs of business.
— Katharine B. Stevens, founder and president of the Center on Child and Family Policy
Differences between the House and Senate funding bills, which will be settled in January, which could affect funding for various early childhood programs.
— Sarah Gilliland, senior policy manager, New America’s New Practice Lab
With New York City’s cost of living driving families away in droves, the time is ripe for universal child care — and it can happen! We look forward to working with Mayor-elect Mamdani and his team as they develop plans that lift up home-based child care as a vital support.
— Jessica Sager, CEO, All Our Kin
Thank you so much to all of you for your support and readership this year, and please don’t hesitate to reach out with any story ideas, questions or comments. Happy holidays!
This story about early childhood education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
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Last year, Project 2025 was a conservative wish list: a grab bag of proposals large and small that would transform the federal government, including in education.
Months later, many of those wishes have become reality. That includes, at least in part, Project 2025’s ultimate goal of doing away with the Education Department.
The department still exists — getting rid of it completely would require congressional action— but it is greatly diminished: Much of the department’s work is being farmed out to other federal agencies. Half of its workforce of about 4,100 people have left or been fired. And Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote after her confirmation that she was leading the department’s “final mission.”
Eliminating the Education Department was just one of many goals, however. While the administration did not meet all the other tasks in this “to-do” list below, compiled by The Hechinger Report and taken directly from Project 2025, there’s still three more years to go.
Early childhood
Eliminate Head Start: NO. Head Start, which provides free preschool for low-income children, still exists, though some individual centers had problems accessing their money because of temporary freezes from the Department of Government Efficiency and the prolonged government shutdown. The federal government also closed five of 10 Head Start regional offices, which collectively served 22 states.
Pay for in-home child care instead of universal (center-based) daycare: NO. Project 2025 states that “funding should go to parents either to offset the cost of staying home with a child or to pay for familial, in-home childcare.” There have been no moves to fulfill this goal, but the budget reconciliation bill the president signed in July increased the child tax credit and introduced “Trump Accounts” for children under age 18.
Expand child care for military families:YES. The National Defense Authorization Act, passed on Dec. 17 and sent to the president for his signature, authorizes over $491 million to design and build new child care centers for these families, among other provisions. The Department of Defense provides child care to military families on a sliding scale based on income. However, about 20 percent of military families who need child care can’t get it because there is not enough space.
Give businesses an incentive to provide “on-site” child care: NO. Project 2025 states that “across the spectrum of professionalized child care options, on-site care puts the least stress on the parent-child bond.”
K-12 education
Move the National Center for Education Statistics to the Census Bureau; transfer higher education statistics to the Labor Department: NO. Education data collection remains at the Education Department. However, the agency’s capacity has been sharply reduced following mass firings and the termination of key contracts — a development not envisioned in Project 2025. At the same time, Donald Trump directed the center to launch a major new data collection on college admissions to verify that colleges are no longer giving preferences based on race, ethnicity or gender.
Expand choice for families by making federal funding portable to many school options: PARTIAL. In January, the president signed an executive order encouraging “educational freedom.” One of the order’s provisions requires the departments of Defense and Interior — which run K-12 schools for military families and tribal communities, respectively — to allow parents to use some federal funding meant for their children’s education at private, religious and charter schools. However, that initiative for Indian schools ended up being scaled back after tribes protested. The “big, beautiful” spending bill signed in July created a national voucher program, but states have to opt in to participate.
Send money now controlled by the federal government, such as Title I and special education funding, to the states as block grants: NO. In the current fiscal year, about $18.5 billion in Title I money flowed to districts to support low-income students. States received about $14 billion to support educating children with disabilities. Project 2025 envisions giving states that money with no strings attached, which it says would allow more flexibility. While the administration has not lifted requirements for all states, it is considering requests from Indiana, Iowa and Oklahoma that would allow those states to spend their federal money with less government oversight. Also, in his fiscal 2026 budget proposal, Trump floated the idea of consolidating several smaller education programs, such as those supporting rural students, homeless students and after-school activities, into one $2 billion block grant. That would be far less than the combined $6.5 billion set aside for these programs in the current budget.
Reject “radical gender ideology” and “critical race theory,” and eliminate requirements to accept such ideology as a condition of receiving federal funds:YES. Immediately after Trump was sworn into office, he reversed a Biden administration rule that included protection of LGBTQ+ students under Title IX, which bans sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal money. Trump also signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal dollars from schools over what the order called “gender ideology extremism” and “critical race theory.” In the months since, the administration launched Title IX investigations in school districts where transgender students are allowed to participate on sports teams and use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. It sent letters to schools across the country threatening to pull funding unless they agree to its interpretation of civil rights laws, to include banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and initiatives. The Education Department also pulled federal research grants and investigated schools and colleges over DEI policies it calls discriminatory.
Pass a federal “parents’ bill of rights,” modeled after similar bills passed at the state level: NO. House Republicans passed a Parents’ Bill of Rights Act two years ago, which would have required districts to post all curricula and reading materials, require schools receiving Title I money to notify parents of any speakers visiting a school, and mandate at least two teacher-parent conferences each year, among other provisions. The Senate did not take it up, and lawmakers have not reintroduced the bill in this session of Congress. About half of the states have their own version of a parentsʼ bill of rights.
Shrink the pool of students eligible for free school meals by ending the “community eligibility provision” and reject universal school meal efforts: NO. Under current rules, schools are allowed to provide free lunch to all students, regardless of their family’s income, if the school or district is in a low-income area. That provision remains in place. The Trump administration has not changed income eligibility requirements for free and reduced-price lunch at schools: Families that earn within 185 percent of the federal poverty line still qualify for reduced lunch and those within 130 percent of the poverty line qualify for free lunch.
Higher education
Roll back student loan forgiveness and income-driven repayment plans: PARTIAL.Three income-driven repayment plans will be phased out next year and a new one — the Repayment Assistance Plan — will be added. RAP requires borrowers to make payments for 30 years before they qualify for loan forgiveness. The administration also reached a proposed agreement to end even earlier the most controversial repayment plan known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education). Trump officials have referred to the SAVE plan as illegal loan forgiveness. Under the plan, some borrowers were eligible to have their loans cleared after only 10 years, while making minimal payments.
End Parent PLUS loans: PARTIAL. These loans, which parents take out to help their children, had no limit. They still exist, but as of July 2026, there will be an annual cap of $20,000 and a lifetime limit of $65,000 per child. Grad PLUS loans, which allow graduate students to borrow directly on behalf of themselves, are being phased out. Under the Repayment Assistance Plan, graduates in certain fields, such as medicine, can borrow no more than $50,000 a year, or $200,000 over four years.
Privatize the federal student loan portfolio: NO. The Trump administration reportedly has been shopping a portion of the federal student loan portfolio to private buyers, but no bids have been made public. Project 2025 also called for eliminating the Federal Student Aid office, which is now housed in the Education Department and oversees student loan programs. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the Treasury Department would be a better home for the office, but no plans for a move have been announced.
End public service loan forgiveness: NO. PSLF allows borrowers to have part of their debt erased if they work for the government or in nonprofit public service jobs and make at least 120 monthly payments. The structure remains, but a new rule could narrow the definition of the kinds of jobs that qualify for loan forgiveness. The proposed rule raises concerns that borrowers working for groups that assist immigrants, transgender youth or provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians, for example, could be disqualified from loan forgiveness. The new rule would go into effect in July.
Rescind Biden-era rules around sexual assault and discrimination: YES. The Department of Education almost immediately jettisoned changes that the Biden administration had made in 2024 to Title IX, which governs how universities and colleges handle cases of sexual assault and discrimination. Under the Biden rules, blocked by a federal judge days before Trump’s inauguration, accused students were no longer guaranteed the right to in-person hearings or to cross-examine their accusers. The Trump Education Department then returned to a policy from the president’s first term, under which students accused of sexual assault will be entitled to confront their accusers, through a designee, which the administration says restores due process but advocates say will discourage alleged victims from coming forward.
Reform higher education accreditation: YES. In an executive order, Trump made it easier for accreditors to be stripped of their authority and new ones to be approved, saying the existing bodies — which, under federal law, oversee the quality of colleges and universities — have ignored poor student outcomes while pushing diversity, equity and inclusion. Florida and Texas have started setting up their own accreditors and said the administration has agreed to expedite the typically yearslong approval process. The Department of Education has earmarked $7 million to support this work and help colleges and universities switch accreditors.
Dismantle DEI programs and efforts: PARTIAL. Though the administration called for eliminating college DEI programs and efforts, most of the colleges that have shut down their DEI offices have done so in response to state-level legislation. Around 400 books removed from the Naval Academy library because of concerns that they contained messages of diversity or inclusion, but most of the books were ultimately returned. The National Science Foundation canceled more than 400 grants related to several topics, including DEI.
Jill Barshay, Ariel Gilreath, Meredith Kolodner, Jon Marcus, Neal Morton and Olivia Sanchez contributed to this report.
Since you made it to the bottom of this article, we have a small favor to ask.
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If you believe stories like the one you just finished matter, please consider pitching in what you can. This effort helps ensure our reporting and resources stay free and accessible to everyone—teachers, parents, policymakers—invested in the future of education.
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