Several Head Start programs across North Carolina and the country have abruptly closed amid the government shutdown.
These centers provide free, federally-funded early education to children from low-income families.
The closures are putting parents like Chantel Dockery, a single mom in China Grove, in a bind. Her two-year-old daughter’s Head Start program closed at the end of last week, leaving Dockery without child care.
“I talked to my job to see, you know, if I can switch shifts, work third shift," Dockery said. "But because it's so soon, I had to call out this week.”
That means her paycheck will be a week short. While she’s out of work, she plans to visit local food pantries. The loss of Head Start is hitting her finances hard.
“I'll probably have to pull out of my retirement funds to kind of make it through because if my job says, ‘No, we can't change your shift right now,’ then it's like, OK, now I gotta figure out how I'm gonna pay for child care for her so I can make it back and forth to work," Dockery said.
The other child care options she’s found cost around $800 a month. She might be able to get help from her family or neighbors, but not all the time, and not for free.
“I got these puzzle pieces that I'm trying to match together, and it has been a headache to say the least. Just scrambling," she said. "I wish, you know, I was more prepared, but unfortunately, like a lot of Americans, we’re living paycheck to paycheck.”
More than 2,500 children have lost their Head Start programs in the state amid the shutdown so far. Not all centers closed — just those that receive their funding in November.
In Forsyth County, the Head Start program is on a summer grant cycle, so it remains operational according to Family Services CEO Khari Garvin.
But he’s concerned about the families who lost access to a service he says goes way beyond babysitting.
“We're talking about preparing children for kindergarten entry and supporting families with ambitions to get out of poverty by helping them to improve their job skills or to complete degrees," Garvin said. "We're talking about supporting the local economy.”
He noted that the closures also impact Head Start employees who are now out of work.