Khulood Jamil (center) and other childcare providers and supporters march to the Federal Building in San José on May 12, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
Several dozen child care providers and advocates rallied Monday outside the federal building in San José to call on Congress to protect Head Start and other programs that support low-income families.
“Don’t you dare cut child care!” they chanted as they marched from the building to a nearby park to mark A Day Without Child Care. A handful of childcare providers closed their doors to attend the rally, but there was little evidence of a widespread work stoppage, as national organizers of the event have urged.
Advocates used the occasion to denounce the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s decision to lay off more than 250 teachers and staffers and effectively shut services to low-income children enrolled in its Early Head Start, Head Start, migrant education and special education programs.
Sponsored
Early Head Start provides care for kids from birth to 3 years old, and Head Start serves kids between 3 and 5 years old. The county serves more than 1,200 families in Santa Clara and San Benito counties, as well as migrant families who live in other Bay Area counties.
The SCCOE has cited federal funding uncertainties as the reason for the layoffs. Jennifer Gravem, a spokeswoman for the office, said it has not heard whether its grants to operate Early Head Start, Head Start and the migrant education programs, which are set to expire on June 30, will be renewed.
Clarissa Doutherd speaks at the Day Without Child Care rally in front of the Federal Building in San José on May 12, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
“If grants are reduced or eliminated, SCCOE will be unable to sustain these programs,” she said in a statement to KQED last week.
That means some of the families enrolled in Head Start’s year-round programs won’t have any child care starting July 1, said Veronica Arellano, who has spent 19 years working as a family advocate at Head Start.
“It’s been very nerve-racking and stressful for myself, but more so for our families that really depend on it,” she said.
Some Head Start funding has been delayed since the Trump administration closed several regional offices of the Department of Health and Human Services, including one in San Francisco, and laid off federal workers who support Head Start.
As a consequence, the SEIU union locals that represent many Head Start workers in California said at least 1,000 of their members have gotten or expect to receive pink slips.
Union workers are calling on the SCCOE to rescind the layoff notices before they go into effect May 25.
Mercedes Hill, who helps administer Head Start for the SCCOE, pointed out that the Merced County Office of Education has decided to continue paying its workers while it waits for the federal government to renew its Head Start grant, which is also up for renewal soon.
Hill said she and her coworkers are “fairly certain” the grant will come through because the county has received funding to operate Head Start for the past 60 years.
“It’s just demoralizing to the staff. We just don’t know what we’re going to do come July 1,” she said. “ The potential break in service would be devastating, even if it’s for a day.”
Diane Nguyen (left) and Yadira Orozco (center) hold their children at the Day Without Child Care rally in front of the Federal Building in San José on May 12, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
Diane Nguyen, a parent who sends her 4-year-old son to a Head Start center in San José, said if she loses child care, she would have to put her pursuit of a nursing degree on hold. Nguyen credited the teachers and staff at Head Start for supporting her and her son as they coped with the deaths of her mom and best friend.
“Head Start is not just another childcare to me, it’s family — the family advocates, the teachers, they’re not just teachers and family advocates. They’re a second mom or an auntie,” she said.
