Trump administration's proposal could make it easier to suspend or expel Head Start students

It was sometime around Xavier Rogers’ second birthday that his mom and Early Head Start teachers noticed a shift in his demeanor. Xavier, usually a happy baby, now mostly wanted to play alone and would sometimes bite and hit other kids in his class. Instead of removing Xavier from his class, his Chicago-area preschool gave the family extra support from a social-emotional and mental healthcare team.

“With these supports in place, I feel like he has grown tremendously,” said Xavier’s mom, Joanna Isitt, a Head Start teacher herself. Now 4, “he’s become much, much more aware of himself and how he feels and how others may feel.” He’s less likely to resort to negative behaviors, and he even encourages her to join him in breathing exercises, saying, “OK, Mama, smell the flowers, blow the candles.” The protections and support Isitt and her son received are part of longstanding Head Start regulations, but they could soon disappear under the Trump administration’s proposed rule change for the 61-year-old early childhood education program. The proposal would eliminate federal guidelines that keep kids who exhibit behaviors like Xavier’s from being removed from Head Start programs.

Instead of receiving the help he needed to self-regulate, the little boy could have been told to leave, and his mother could have been left scrambling for alternative care. ___ AP has partnered with The 74, an education-focused nonprofit news outlet, to cover the impact of the Trump administration’s proposedchanges to Head Start. ____ The family lives in Illinois, which has its own regulations against imposing exclusionary discipline such as suspensions and expulsions on preschoolers.

But some other states, such as South Carolina and Florida, do not. The updated Head Start rules would ask providers to make their own discipline policies by following state and local licensing requirements. Advocates and experts fear Head Start students and families in these places could experience a more punitive reality if the proposed changes take effect.

Suspensions and expulsions are associated with negative outcomes, including lower educational achievement, decreased likelihood of graduating high school and depression. “If the state of Florida doesn’t have standards related to suspension and expulsion, and that’s what the administration wants us to go by … I think as a country we should all be very concer…