Sponsors (59)
The bill expands allowable HEA activities to include Head Start/Early Head Start, improving early‑learning access and program coordination for families (especially low‑income) while raising potential federal costs and administrative complexity for institutions.
Parents—especially low-income families—and young children gain explicit access to child development and early learning services (including Head Start/Early Head Start) through allowable activities under HEA Section 441, increasing direct early‑learning support tied to higher education programs.
Programs administered by the Department of Education can explicitly fund or support early learning services, broadening program options and supports available to low-income families and making it easier to connect students who are parents with child care/early education resources.
Colleges, universities, and state education agencies gain clearer statutory authority to link higher‑education supports with early childhood services, which may improve coordination between postsecondary institutions and family/child service providers.
Taxpayers and students face a higher fiscal burden because expanding allowable activities to include Head Start/Early Head Start could increase federal program costs or require diverting HEA Section 441 funds from other services.
Colleges, universities, and state agencies may incur administrative burdens and uncertainty because implementing and integrating Head Start/Early Head Start requirements with existing HEA program rules could be ambiguous and complex.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands a Higher Education Act provision to explicitly include child development and early learning (including Head Start and Early Head Start) among covered activities.
Official title: To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include child development and early learning as community services under the Federal work-study program.
Introduced July 10, 2025 by Joaquin Castro · Last progress July 10, 2025
The bill updates a Higher Education Act provision to expand the list of allowable activities to explicitly include "child development and early learning," and it parenthetically names Head Start and Early Head Start while adding a statutory citation (42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.). It does not create new programs, appropriate funds, or impose new duties; it merely broadens the language describing covered/allowable activities in existing law. The change is narrowly targeted and technical: it replaces the phrase "literacy training" with a longer phrase that retains literacy training while adding child development/early learning and an explicit reference to Head Start and Early Head Start programs. No funding or implementation deadlines are specified.