Trump officials bar Head Start providers from using 'women' and 'race' in grant applications

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MORIAH BALINGIT
Updated 3:48 PM CST, January 5, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is telling Head Start providers to avoid dozens of terms in federal grant applications, including “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people” — a directive that could reshape the early education program.

A coalition of organizations representing Head Start providers and parents said in court filings last month that the Department of Health and Human Services told a Head Start director in Wisconsin to cut those and over a dozen other terms from her application. She later received a list with nearly 200 words the department discouraged her from using in her application, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women.”

President Donald Trump’s administration associates the terms with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which it has vowed to root out across the government.

The guidance could lead Head Start centers to preemptively drop anything that could be seen as fitting the administration’s definition of DEI, said Ruth Friedman, who led the Office of Child Care under President Joe Biden.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/head-start-dei-women-race-599220b1cd39e3d6c585f8fe7811a59c