Community Action Pioneer Valley’s Head Start services could be facing setbacks if the Trump administration does not allocate money to the federal program next fiscal year — a very real possibility that advocates say would be catastrophic for vulnerable young children and their families.

According to a USA Today report released earlier this month, Head Start has not been granted funds in the FY26 budget, with one official telling the publication that there are plans to eliminate the program entirely.

While a White House Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told USA Today that no official budget decisions have been made yet, Head Start programs across the state and beyond face the future with apprehension.

Community Action Pioneer Valley serves more than 300 children, and roughly half of the families served by the program are single-parent households. With locations in Amherst, Turners Falls, Northampton, Westfield, Agawam, Orange and Ware, they employ about 200 staff members, more than 20% of whom are former Head Start parents.

“We’re serving families up and down the valley,” said Clare Higgins, Community Action Pioneer Valley’s executive director. “If Head Start was to be cut, we wouldn’t be able to run the program we’re running now.”

Head Start provides support services for low-income expectant parents and children 5 and under. Services include physical and mental health, disability and nutrition support. The program also provides resources and learning activities for children and their parents.

The possible cuts to this program have made U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern feel like he’s in “North Korea or Russia or China,” because “this is not supposed to be happening here.”

“What’s his problem with Head Start?” McGovern asked, referring to President Donald Trump. “What’s his problem with making sure that all of our kids have access to good nutrition and getting prepared for school or being able to have a great future? I really don’t get it.”

McGovern said he will have a better idea of how deep the cuts will truly be when the budget reconciliation bill comes out in a few weeks.

Another Massachusetts legislator, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, reacted with similar disapproval to the possible cuts, calling them “shameful” in a statement.

“Head Start is a lifeline for more than 10,000 children and families across Massachusetts. Eliminating funding for this essential program would be the equivalent of ripping the American Dream away from families,” Markey wrote. “The Trump administration is pursuing an anti-family, anti-health and anti-education agenda, choosing to fund billionaire tax breaks over a better future for children and their families.”

The federal Head Start program began in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty,” and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that it has served more than 40 million children and families since then. The Office of Head Start is appropriated more than $12 billion per fiscal year, according to the national Office of the Administration for Children and Families.

In Massachusetts, the program serves more than 11,000 children and families and employs more than 4,000 staff members, according to the Massachusetts Head Start Association.

Earlier this month, the Head Start regional office in Boston was one of five federal regional offices shuttered throughout the country, and the staff were immediately terminated. This occurred as part of broader cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The elimination of Head Start is called for in Project 2025, a conservative roadmap to shrink the federal government. Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought was selected by Trump to lead the White House’s budget office.

Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, wrote in a statement that the rumored cuts for FY26 “would be catastrophic for working families, vulnerable young children and Head Start employees.”

“If President Trump’s budget proposal is realized, between Head Start staff and parents, well over 10,000 individuals will be out of work either due to the loss of child care or the elimination of their employer,” Haimowitz wrote. “A shutdown of Head Start would not only halt the learning and care for thousands of vulnerable children, but would raise unemployment and hurt the Massachusetts economy.”

Higgins explained Community Action Pioneer Valley receives more than $8 million in direct federal funding for its Head Start and Early Head Start programs. This makes up a sizable chunk of the roughly $11 million budget these programs operate on, which includes funding from the state level. Some of the federal funding also goes toward the USDA child care food program.

“We offer services that … generations of families have come to rely on,” Higgins said. “Those children and those families are working people in our communities.”

No official decisions have come to light yet regarding the FY26 budget, but Higgins and other Head Start officials believe that the rumored cuts are a genuine possibility. Should they happen, Head Start programs across the state and the country will be forced to downsize many of these services.

For now, McGovern said that “all of us, even those of us who may not be directly impacted by some of these cuts, we need to use our voices at this moment and push back in a meaningful way.”

Staff writer Chris Larabee contributed to this report. Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.