Head Start for America's Children Act

Updates and expands Head Start and Early Head Start law to strengthen services for infants, toddlers, and children, increase mental‑health and disability supports, modernize definitions and program standards, and create new grant pilots and partnerships. It sets a $60,000 minimum base salary for classroom educational staff in FY2026 (with annual CPI adjustments), requires most center‑based programs to move to a full calendar year schedule by September 30, 2027, and authorizes large new funding levels and multiple targeted grant programs for workforce, extended hours, campus‑based services, community eligibility pilots, and Native American/migrant program support.

Implements programmatic changes across operations, reporting, monitoring, regional office structure, and training (including universal design for learning and restraint prevention), updates terminology (e.g., “Native American,” “children who are developing English proficiency,” and “disability”), and requires new research, data collection, and reports to Congress to evaluate discipline, staffing, competition, and pilot outcomes.

Introduced September 16, 2025 by Bernard Sanders · Last progress September 16, 2025