Head Start is Essential for Early Childhood Mental Health
A new brief from the Thrive Center on what the Administration’s proposed Head Start rule would mean for the mental health of infants, toddlers, and the adults who care for them. Below, Thrive Center Director Matthew G. Biel explains why we are releasing it now and what we hope it makes possible.
Foreword
Today we are releasing a brief on what the Administration’s proposed Head Start rule would mean for the mental health of infants, toddlers, and the adults who care for them.
We believe families, communities, and the government need a clear account of what is at stake.
For more than forty years, our work with the Office of Head Start and with local programs has focused on translating Head Start’s performance standards into daily practice: mental health consultation that happens regularly rather than only in a crisis; screening for mental health needs that then leads to real follow-up for children and families requiring clinical care; consistent home visits that allow families to build trust with staff members; teacher-student ratios that allow educators to devote sufficient attention to young children. Each of those provisions is now proposed for removal.
This brief describes, provision by provision, the changes that have been proposed relating to mental health. We also describe what the Head Start Act itself requires and what the research shows about these interventions.
The case is straightforward. Head Start can certainly be improved. It cannot be improved by removing the standards that produce its most important results.
These proposed changes are open for public comment. We encourage everyone who cares about the wellbeing of young children in the United States to submit a comment, and we hope this brief will help to inform a robust public discourse. Comments are due October 6, 2026 here .
Matthew G. Biel, MD, MSc
Director, Thrive Center for Children, Families and Communities at Georgetown University
About this resource
Head Start is the largest program in the country serving young children and their families directly, reaching more than 700,000 children each year. What makes it work is not simply that children have somewhere to go. It is the Head Start Program Performance Standards — the federal requirements that build an infrastructure of relationships, experiences, and supports around each child and family. Two proposed rules would dismantle much of that infrastructure: an August 2026 rule would rescind the 133-page performance standards in favor of a much shorter set that defers to state and local standards, and a May 2026 rule would rescind the 2024 workforce compensation and wellness provisions.
This brief details, provision by provision, what those changes put at risk — staff-to-child ratios, mental health consultation and screening, family support services, the prohibition on expulsion, home visiting, and staff health and wellness — with a side-by-side comparison of what the Head Start Act requires, what the current standards require, what the proposed rule would change, and what each change would mean in practice. There are real opportunities to improve Head Start. Removing the standards that produce its most important results is not one of them.