Salem preschool programs that rely on federal money to serve hundreds of children from low-income families will continue operating amid significant uncertainty following the abrupt closure Tuesday of a federal office supporting their work. The Seattle office of Head Start was abruptly shut down T uesday as part of the closure of five regional offices for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the Seattle Times reported. The regional office oversaw the low-income preschool program in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. Eva Pignotti, who runs Head Start programs for the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, learned of the closure from a statewide call among Oregon Head Start leaders.  “We’re really very concerned about not having a transition plan or any communication about where we go now,” Pignotti said. There’s been no indication that the federal government intends to stop funding local preschool spots, Pignotti said, but she’s unsure what’s ahead given the often abrupt nature of recent federal policy changes. With the regional office gone, she now has no one in the federal government to contact with questions about funding. The office closure comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a rapid and chaotic approach to reducing the scale of federal government, sometimes firing and then rehiring employees or shutting down programs with little notice. The Head Start preschool program was established in the 1960s to improve opportunities for students from poor families who often couldn’t afford preschool. It was later expanded to an Early Head Start program which provided child care for children under 3. Community Action, a local nonprofit, is the largest Head Start provider in the Salem area, serving nearly 800 children across about a dozen sites and employing 225 people.  About half the spaces for children are federally funded at a cost of $10 million a year. Separately, the Salem-Keizer School District has 394 Head Start students in preschool, funded by the state. Eva Pignotti, chief program officer of early learning and child care for the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, looks over a contingency plan for Head Start operations in her office on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Pignotti said the regional federal office oversaw grants, training for her employees and monitored programs such as hers to ensure they were following federal laws. “We don’t know what this means, who will do those things or if five regional offices will have the capacity to fully service all the programs in the country,” she said. Federal workers helped Salem-area programs by letting Pignotti know when they had money left over in federal budgets to fund projects like the renovations of the Middle Grove preschool on Northeast Silverton Road. That’s causing significant anxiety among her employees, she said. “I think people have to feel that anxiety and unease of that answer: We don’t know. There’s no forecasting of this,” she said. The program has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress and previous presidential administrations. Pignotti said it plays a crucial role in ensuring kids who have struggled in their lives are prepared for kindergarten. Child care and preschool teach kids skills like paying attention, socializing with classmates and following directions. That lets kindergarten teachers focus on teaching reading and math, not addressing student behavior. “The preschool experience is just critical for children to be able to come into public school with some foundation of emotional regulation,” Pignotti said. Earlier this year, Pignotti wrote up a contingency plan for how the program would handle a two-week disruption in federal funding. That came after the Trump administration briefly froze all federal grant payments in late January, leaving some programs unable to access money. She declined to share the details, saying she doesn’t want to worry the agency’s employees or the families they serve. For now, Head Start will keep serving children and families in Salem. “We’ll do that until something forces us to stop and we hope that doesn’t happen,” she said. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: rachel@salemreporter.com or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Low-income preschool programs in Salem grapple with uncertainty following federal office closure appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less