Woodgrove’s beloved Head Start program is at risk of being defunded due to the possible suspension of federal funds to Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). If the program is impacted, support for young disadvantaged children in Loudoun County could dwindle.
The Head Start program is a preschool initiative designed to provide educational services for Loudoun County children of low-income families. According to the Woodgrove High School website, the program aims at turning these young learners into “healthy, happy, self-confident, socially well-adjusted, curious, creative, self-sufficient and independent individuals.”
In August of 2025, the assurance of Head Start’s continuation at Woodgrove was put at risk with the threat of federal funding being removed from LCPS schools, a call that was made by the current Education Department in order to counter certain policies related to diversity and discrimination within the school district. Policy 8040 was a particular focus, with the department stating that the policy, which allows transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their preferred gender identity, violates the Title IX sex discrimination in schools law by causing discomfort for other students.
If LCPS is deemed not in compliance with federal mandates, it could lose all of its funding from the Education Department. Ms. Diana Shea, a government teacher at Woodgrove, notes that it is completely within the federal government’s power to follow through with this. “The federal government has been doing this notoriously throughout, but…you saw it pick up in, really, in the 70s and 80s, there was a lot. So it’s nothing new with these federal mandates,” Shea explained.
Federal grants only make up 2.5% of LCPS’ budget for the fiscal year, a portion much smaller than many other school districts in Virginia and nation-wide. Districts like LCPS can afford to go against federal mandates, but this is not the case for most. “Loudoun County is kind of in a unique situation where most of its funding comes from local sources,” Shea described, “But, you have some counties across the country that rely very heavily on federal funding. So it’s harder for them to resist federal mandates because they are so heavily dependent upon federal funding.”
Special Education, school nutrition, and, of course, Head Start, are all partially or fully funded by money received from federal funds—meaning, several fundamental programs available to LCPS families could be off the table if these funds are not recovered. This raises concerns for Dr. Karen Curtis, who runs the Early Childhood Development course at Woodgrove. The students in Curtis’ class create lesson plans and work alongside the preschool attendees in the Head Start program to gain real experience as teachers. “I think the biggest impact is going to be the closure of programs because of funding. Teacher salary is going to take a good chunk of that funding,” Curtis explained, “So if they can’t afford a teacher, or they cannot find a qualified teacher that’s willing to work for what they’re offering, then there’s no program. If there’s no program, then there’s a ripple effect of those children not getting the support that they need.”
Due to the nature of the program as geared towards children who have educational impediments, disabilities, or are experiencing issues in their homes, taking away resources like Head Start could be detrimental to the wellbeing of these children. “We had students last year in the preschool that their needs are not being met, even in a Head Start preschool. Could you imagine them trying to survive in a ‘normal’ preschool? It would just be insurmountable, and it would just invoke a lot of anxiety and stress on the child,” Curtis explained.
The removal of the Head Start program would create a domino effect, first knocking down the potential for Early Childhood Development, a class that relies heavily on collaboration efforts with Head Start for much of their lessons. In the words of senior JJ Domine, who began taking Early Childhood Development to prepare her for a future career in education, the class’ participation with the Head Start program teaches students to hone attributes essential to the educational field. “I learned to have good patience, not only working with children but working with others as well,” Domine shared.
In Domine’s experience, it’s not just the Early Childhood Development students who benefit from their time collaborating with the Head Start program. “There could be a child that is in the same store as me and they remember me, like, ‘Oh, hey!’ And when they see you as their friend, they don’t see you as just a teacher normally,” Domine shared.
If the Early Childhood Development domino collapses, it will then knock down the strong group of Woodgrove students eager to join the ranks of teachers after they graduate. Students like Domine are taking classes like Early Childhood Development and Teacher Cadets to get ahead of the curve when it comes to experience as educators. “If there’s a student in Woodgrove who wants to become a teacher or wants to do something with children, having early childhood gives them a big opportunity to be able to fully know if they truly want to work with children,” Domine elaborated, “So it really truly does open a lot of opportunity because other schools in the county, they don’t have that.” They will lose these advantages if Early Childhood Development is no longer a factor.
A solution could be found in the promises of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, who in July offered to compensate for the potential lost funds in the LCPS budget, a total that amounts to over $46 million. This additional money in Loudoun County can be traced back to the success of local data centers, Shea mentioned. “The tax base in Loudoun County was able to go down because of all this extra money coming in from data centers,” Shea said.
It is not certain what the final decision will be regarding LCPS’ federal grant funding or the Board of Supervisors’ hasty solution, but the thoughtful words of the students and teachers involved in the Head Start and Early Childhood Development programs are a testament to how integral they are to the Woodgrove community.