By MORIAH BALINGIT, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the White House paused federal grants and loans in a far-reaching executive order, early childhood education centers and states discovered Tuesday they could no longer access money they rely on to provide care for some of the nation’s neediest families and children.
Staff encountered problems with Medicaid and Head Start payment websites around the country. The administration of President Donald Trump said those programs were not affected by the funding freeze and called the Medicaid problem an outage.
The freeze was halted by a federal judge but the chaos showed how dependent programs serving low-income kids are on the federal government.
But some Head Start providers said they might have difficulty opening as soon as Wednesday if the issue is not resolved.
Chanda Hillman, who runs a network of Head Start centers in southwestern Michigan, said she would be unable to make payroll without access to the payment website. Her centers serve 600 kids across three counties and the vast majority of the parents work, relying on Head Start for child care.
Payment websites for Medicaid and Head Start displayed error messages when staff attempted to log on to access money already allocated to them.
In Mississippi, Early Head Start program director Katina Spaulding sent an emergency text message asking parents to come and pick their children up for the day. Her center had to stop operating because they could not access money to stay open, she said.
“Our families are being punched in the gut three times from different angles,” Spaulding said. “This is so heartless.”
The center later told families it would reopen Wednesday, after receiving confirmation that its funding would not be halted.
On X, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the administration is “ aware of the Medicaid website portal outage.”
“We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent,” Leavitt wrote. “We expect the portal will be back online shortly.”
In Oregon, Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said the state’s Medicaid portal was shut down and that the state health agency couldn’t log on to seek or receive reimbursements for health services provided to the program’s low-income recipients. The problem also affected Head Start providers and the state’s Department of Early Learning and Care, which provides services for low-income children, Kotek said.
“I can tell you that when federal funds that are meant to serve the most vulnerable Oregonians are suspended or unavailable, that has an impact on Oregonians, and it’s a dereliction of the federal government’s duty to protect Americans,” she said
Head Start, the nation’s signature early education program, serves some of the neediest kids, including those who are homeless, in foster care and coming from low-income households. The free program is a lifeline for low-income families who need to work but cannot afford private child care.
Dozens of Head Start operators had gathered in Washington for a conference when the news of the funding freeze broke, leaving them feeling “anxious (and) afraid,” said Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the of the National Head Start Association.
“We don’t have enough information. Is it a short-term thing? Is this a glitch? Is it a long-term thing? All of those things we just really don’t know at this point,” Sheridan said. “That’s really adding to the fear and the concern.”
Associated Press writer Claire Savage in Chicago and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
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