Res 0650-2026

Res. No. 650 Resolution opposing the federally proposed rule change titled, “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs” and calling on the Federal Government to prioritize protecting and growing access to high-quality education for young children By Council Members Gutiérrez, Cabán, Reslter, Hanif, Brooks-Powers, Narcisse, J. Sanchez, Epstein and Brewer Whereas, In New York State, Head Start serves approximately 39,171 kids across 2,365 classrooms; and Whereas, Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long been considered by experts to be a gold standard early learning program; and Whereas, A report published by the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University highlights that children who participate in Head Start programs outperform their peers who did not attend Head Start on every cognitive and social emotional domain measured by the time they enter kindergarten and, as adults, had higher rates of high school graduation and post-secondary degree attainment, reduced use of public assistance, lower poverty rates, and enhanced earnings; and Whereas, The report also shows that parents who participated in Head Start had increased engagement with their child’s learning and development, increased parental involvement like time spent at home reading together, improved parent-child interactions, and increased educational attainment; and Whereas, The federal regulations that govern Head Start, which currently stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement; and Whereas, On August 6, 2026, the United States Department of Health and Human Services released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking title, “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs,” which would replace the current Head Start rules with around a dozen pages of regulations, leaving most of the specifics up to state and local law; and Whereas, One of the most dramatic changes in the proposed rule concerns staff-to-child ratios as Head Start currently requires one teacher for every four infants and toddlers, eight three-year-olds, or ten four-year-olds, and the proposed rule would eliminate all federal ratio and group size requirements, deferring instead to whatever each state’s licensing standards allow; and Whereas, Another change removes federal qualification requirements for most Head Start staff and instead includes a provision that prohibits programs from requiring postsecondary credentials unless they can demonstrate that those credentials are “necessary for the position”; and Whereas, Furthermore, the rule change introduces a new requirement that all education be conducted in English, and according to the administration’s own analysis, this change would impact an estimated 33 percent of non-tribal Head Start classrooms; and Whereas, The English-only rule change would directly conflict with decades of research illustrating that the programs that have the most long-lasting effectiveness for dual language learners are those that incorporate the students’ home language into instruction or provide some sort of home language support; and Whereas, The English-only requirement could have a big impact on New York, as approximately 554,000 young children ages 0 to 5 are multilingual learners, comprising 45 percent of all children in this age group; and Whereas, Nationally, one-third of children under the age of 5 are multi-language learners, and multilingual learners account for an even higher percentage of Head Start (36%) enrollment; and Whereas, If Head Start mandates English-only instruction, changes staff-to-child ratios, and removes federal qualification requirements for Head Start staff, Head Start will become less effective with a population for which it has produced especially strong results in the past; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York opposes the federally proposed rule change titled, “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs” and calls on the Federal Government to prioritize protecting and growing access to high-quality education for young children. KS LS 26133 9/21/2026 11:30 AM