When food stamp benefits faced a cutoff, nonprofit groups and local governments filed lawsuits, winning court orders requiring the resumption of payments.

And when military troops risked having to work without pay, the Trump administration diverted other Pentagon funds to cover the cost of those paychecks, in a legally untested move.

But no such quick fix is in store for Head Start, the early childhood education program that served nearly 716,000 children, mostly preschoolers, and pregnant women across the country in fiscal 2024, the most recent year with full data.

As a result, low-income families in states such as Georgia, Ohio and California began taking a hit this week, as early education advocates warn preschools are being forced to close their doors as a casualty of the partial go

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