Tawny Hardyman on Closure of Head Start Classes in Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:
As the government shutdown became the longest in U.S. history, the impacts piled up. Across Wisconsin, early learning Head Start programs had to close down, shuttering child care programing for hundreds of children. One of them covers five counties and is run by the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program. It closed nine Head Start classrooms at the start of this month. We’re joined now by the director of Head Start programs there, Tawny Hardyman. And thanks very much for being here.

Tawny Hardyman:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
So I see that you are joining us from one of your empty classrooms. How hard is this for you to see happen?

Tawny Hardyman:
Very difficult. Even though this is out of our control, we feel really responsible for our families and the children and the impacts that we make within their lives. And so it’s really hard to have told the families this after you’ve encouraged them to, you know, come to your center, enroll in your program. To see the empty classroom is hard. These are three- and four-year-old children here at this center. They have fun every day. We have great teachers here and we just worry about, you know, what are they doing? We miss them.

Frederica Freyberg:
How disruptive is this in the lives of the families whose children are there?

Tawny Hardyman:
It’s extremely disruptive. You can imagine as three- and four-year-old children, it takes a little while to transition into a classroom and to get accustomed to things. And then suddenly this routine that they’ve been in every week ends and they’re kind of wondering what’s going on. Additionally, with families, they rely on these classrooms for childcare. While some of the families go to work or school, and they have — when they came to our program in September, they would have let go of a different enrollment spot, potentially at another childcare provider. This area is also a childcare desert in many of our communities. So they were having struggles trying to find other arrangements for their children, if they don’t have family or friends that are able to help them. Another thing that impacts the families is that these children receive breakfast, lunch and snack at our centers every day. Many families were really wondering about their food security additionally.

Frederica Freyberg:
How are they dealing with that? Do you know?

Tawny Hardyman:
They were very upset, very worried. Scrambling, you know, wondering what were they going to do, asking our staff if they would be available to watch their children while they went to work. You know, so, yeah, they, they just kind of feel like the rug was yanked out from underneath them. They had a routine going. They had made arrangements, like I said, to work or go to school. And then in the middle, you know, right at the end of October, we had to let them know that our funding has not been approved for the next 12-month grant cycle.

Frederica Freyberg:
How valuable are the benefits of Head Start programing for these children?

Tawny Hardyman:
You know, one of the biggest things that kids learn are some social skills, like how do I learn to listen to instructions? How do I learn to follow the routines of school? How do I make friends? You know, those things are so much even more important than the ABCs and 123s. It’s just learning how to listen. When do I sit still? When do I get up to go? And this might be their first experience away from home, so it gets them prepared for what that environment would be like at the school. They are adjusted. They’re used to coming in. Now we’re worried if the shutdown happens, you know, for a long period of time, how difficult will it be for them to transition back into this setting.

Frederica Freyberg:
Even if or when federal funding resumes, will you be able to kind of seamlessly bring your programing back up to speed?

Tawny Hardyman:
It won’t be as quick as what a person might think. So when the federal government shut down, our regional offices, national offices that support programs, those staff were furloughed on October 1st. So we have grant applications. As I said, our grant cycle runs from November 1st to October 31st, and that grant application is in there, in the system waiting to be awarded. So once the government opens back up, they will have to recall those federal, well, those regional and national workers for Head Start. They’ll have to review our application again. And then we have to wait for the notice of award. So we’ve — our understanding is that could take about 1 to 2 weeks. And then once we receive the notice of award, it hopefully — it will be for the full amount that we have, you know, requested. Then we would put together a plan, recall staff, give them a little bit of time in the classroom to get things back up and running such as getting food, groceries for breakfast, lunch and snack and then contact families. So it’s going to take us at least probably three weeks would be my guess, even after the government reopens.

Frederica Freyberg:
Tawny Hardyman, thanks very much for explaining to us what your program does.

Tawny Hardyman:
Thank you for the opportunity.