At least five Wisconsin Head Start child care programs for low-income families have reported that they’re still unable to collect federal funds to cover their routine costs in the last two weeks.

On Thursday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) sent a letter to Trump administration officials demanding they address the unexplained halt in payments.

“It continues to be a very significant problem,” said Jenny Mauer, executive director of the Wisconsin Head Start Association, the membership organization of Wisconsin’s 39 Head Start providers. Mauer said that as of late Thursday afternoon, at least five of those providers have not yet been able to receive payments for routine expenses submitted under their contractual agreements with the federal government.

The funding halt coincided with a broad freeze ordered by the Trump administration in federal grant and loan disbursement starting the last week of January.

Administration officials said the funding freeze did not include Head Start funds. Despite those assertions, Since Tuesday, Jan. 28, Head Start programs in Wisconsin and across the country have reported being unable to get paid through the online portal that processes their routine payment draw requests. 

The delays have persisted a week after two federal court orders to the administration to lift its freeze on payments.

“Up until Monday last week, these were not issues that our programs experienced,” Mauer told the Wisconsin Examiner on Thursday afternoon. She said Head Start directors around the state who have been with the program for up to a decade have confirmed the current problem is unprecedented.

“Typically we have really stellar communications with the Office of Head Start,” Mauer said. “Typically things work very smoothly.”

Fond du Lac program: 10 days without payment

In the lower Fox Valley, a three-county community action agency in Fond du Lac has yet to receive a payment for monthly Head Start expenses submitted 10 days ago.

ADVOCAP provides community services for Fond du Lac, Winnebago and Green Lake counties, including operating a Head Start child care program with three centers in Fond du Lac County and one in Green Lake County. The centers combined enroll 202 children, serving 191 families. 

April Mullins-Datko, ADVOCAP’s Head Start director, said the program’s expenses for January were submitted on Tuesday, Jan. 28 through the federal payment management system website. The expenses are usually about $250,000 a month.

Instead of the usual automatic acknowledgement message when the information is uploaded, “we got a ‘pending review’ message,” Mullins-Datko told the Wisconsin Examiner. 

She is accustomed to seeing the payment deposited in the agency’s account in 24 to 48 hours. As of Thursday, however, “we still cannot access our funding,” Mullins-Datko said. “This morning, the payment management website is not even online. It’s having a pretty big impact.”

On Wednesday, ADVOCAP released a statement outlining the halt in funds and its potential impact on the program. 

“ADVOCAP is doing everything in our power to continue providing uninterrupted Head Start programming while we await resolution. However, if the funding delay extends into next month, we will need to assess the implications for the future of our program,” the agency’s statement said. 

ADVOCAP’s current Head Start contract with the federal government runs through Dec. 31, 2028, Mullins-Datko said. The federal rules for the grant require the recipient agency to incur the expense, then submit those documents for reimbursement. Usually “it’s dependable. It’s just recently that it’s not,” she said.

Mullins-Datko said she has tried contacting federal Head Start staff in Chicago and Washington, D.C., but received no response. 

“Right now we’re having to start February services without cash flow coming in,” she said. “Currently we’re staying open, but we’re running on a line of credit that only goes so far.”

The vast majority of families the ADVOCAP Head Start program serves — 93% — “are working families,” Mullins-Datko said. “They’re working and trying their very best to make ends meet.”

In December, some child care providers in the Fond du Lac area closed, she added. “Child care is already difficult to find, and it’s very expensive,” Mullins-Datko said. Without Head Start, “Our families wouldn’t have access to child care.”

Reaching out to lawmakers

Mullins-Datko said she made 39 calls to the offices of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)  and U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeuhlah), as well as Baldwin.

On Thursday, a member of Baldwin’s staff called her, several days after her first inquiry. “They let me know that they’ve been flooded with calls and they apologized for not getting back sooner,” Mullins-Datko said. “Still no access to funds, but I remain hopeful.”

She said she has not heard back from the other lawmakers, however.

In a letter Thursday to Dorothy Fink, acting secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, and Tala Hooban, acting Head Start director, Baldwin called attention to the persistence of the delays.

“Head Start programs in Wisconsin are continuing to have problems accessing their funds, which raises continued uncertainty about their ability to keep their doors open,” Baldwin wrote. “This is unacceptable and requires your immediate attention.”

Baldwin demanded an accounting of directives from the Trump administration in freezing funds as well as directives after the court orders to suspend the freeze. 

She also demanded information on the number of Head Start grant recipients who had trouble or were unable to access the payment system from Jan. 28 on, as well as details on the reasons recipients were unable to get access to the system.