On October 6, 2026, Defending Education filed a public comment with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in support of its proposed rule, “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs.” The rule would rescind more than 1,400 prescriptive provisions of the Head Start Program Performance Standards, consolidate portions of the Code of Federal Regulations, and defer to state and local law wherever it already governs classroom ratios, facilities, licensing, and discipline. HHS estimates the changes would save a billion dollars or more each year and could support roughly 116,000 additional Head Start preschool slots and 45,000 additional Early Head Start slots by 2031 without any new appropriations.
Our comment commends the agency for returning decision-making authority to states, local programs, and parents. The rule makes parent committees optional rather than mandatory, requires programs to engage parents as their children’s primary teachers, and eliminates federal rules that merely duplicate the Head Start Act or existing state licensing requirements. At the same time, it strengthens federal standards in areas including physical activity, English language instruction, meals, proof of eligibility, and administrative costs.
We also offered recommendations to make the final rule more durable. These included requiring programs to adopt and publish enforceable group size standards, explaining why each rescission in the rule is consistent with the Head Start Act of 2007, and publishing a list of rescinded provisions along with the final rule.