Attorney General Bonta Co-Leads Coalition in Opposing Trump Administration’s Cruel Gutting of Head Start Standards

October 6, 2026 Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday co-led a multistate coalition in submitting a comment letter opposing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) proposal to dramatically cut regulations governing the Head Start program. Head Start is an early childhood education program designed to help break the cycle of poverty by providing young children from low-income backgrounds with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and educational needs. The proposed rule would gut long-standing and evidence-backed Head Start Program Performance Standards, impose an English-only mandate, and revise the cap on allowable administrative and development costs from 15% to 5%, while adding other burdensome requirements that would undermine children’s ability to learn and be prepared to succeed in school. “Every child deserves a fair shot to succeed, which is what Head Start provides for hundreds of thousands of families across California and the country,” said Attorney General Bonta . “The Trump Administration’s proposal would strip away protections that took decades

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