HHS Issues Head Start Final Rule Scrapping the 2024 Teacher Pay Parity Mandate, Citing More Than $2 Billion in Yearly Savings From 2031
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a final rule for Head Start on November 13 that rescinds a 2024 pay mandate for the federal preschool program. The rule is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on November 16 and takes effect 60 days later. The 2024 rule would have required Head Start programs with more than 200 funded slots to raise education staff pay by 2031 to parity with local public pre-K teachers, or to 90% of kindergarten teacher pay where no public pre-K exists.
The mandate would have raised average Head Start teacher pay by roughly $10,000; the final rule also rolls back benefit requirements added in 2024. The Administration for Children and Families says the change will save more than $2 billion a year in future costs starting in 2031 and prevents the elimination of as many as 106,000 slots, including 84,000 preschool slots for children ages 3 to 5 and 22,000 Early Head Start slots for children under 3.
The rollback was proposed in May 2026, and the public comment period closed in June. Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Alex Adams has said that regulation layered on top of regulation over time drove up the cost of running programs. The final rule does not bar local programs from raising teacher pay on their own. A separate, broader HHS proposal on Head Start standards, covering ratios, family services and health screenings, remains pending. (Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：Wikimedia Commons「Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch October 2020 03 (Head Start School).jpg」（Michael Barera 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0），图中为位于德州LBJ牧场的启智计划早期校舍 Image: Wikimedia Commons "Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch October 2020 03 (Head Start School).jpg" (by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0), The historic Head Start schoolhouse at the LBJ Ranch in Texas
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