Federal officials have instructed some Head Start programs to delete nearly 200 words and phrases from grant applications or face possible denial, according to court filings made public in an ongoing lawsuit. The disputed list, filed Dec. 5, includes terms such as “accessible,” “belong,” “Black,” “disability,” “female,” “minority,” “trauma,” “tribal” and “women.”
The suit was brought by Head Start grantees in Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and Illinois against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaintiffs say the administration’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives conflicts with Head Start’s statutory obligations, which require providing “linguistically and culturally appropriate” services and delivering early intervention for children with disabilities.
HHS declined to comment on the filings. HHS Press Secretary Emily G. Hilliard said, “HHS does not comment on ongoing litigation.” Head Start serves roughly 750,000 infants, toddlers and preschoolers nationwide, offering early learning, childcare, meals, health screenings and family supports.
Court materials include a declaration from the executive director of a long-standing Wisconsin Head Start program who is identified by the pseudonym Mary Roe. Roe says she submitted a routine funding renewal on Sept. 30 and then received two emails from HHS on Nov. 19. The first email returned her application and attached a shorter list of 19 words to remove, including “Racism,” “Race” and “Racial.” A follow-up email from a program specialist provided a longer attachment titled “Words to limit or avoid in government documents,” containing nearly 200 entries. Both emails are included in the lawsuit; the specialist’s name was redacted. It is not clear how many other grantees received similar guidance.
Roe told the court the instruction placed her in an “impossible situation” because several of the banned terms appear in the Head Start Act itself. She highlighted an apparent contradiction: Head Start is charged with creating inclusive, accessible classrooms and identifying children with disabilities, yet she was told to avoid words such as “disability,” “disabilities” and “inclusion” in her application. Roe said complying with the word restrictions could satisfy the administration but run afoul of existing law.
Disability-rights advocates criticized the guidance. Jacqueline Rodriguez of the National Center for Learning Disabilities said banning the word “disability” from Head Start is “morally repugnant and a violation of federal law,” and argued that programs funded to support children with disabilities cannot do so if they are prohibited from using the terms that define those services.
Other filings show a Head Start program on a Native American reservation was told to remove sections needed to prioritize services for tribal members and descendants, even though federal law permits such prioritization. The word “tribal” appears on the list of words to limit or avoid.
The administration has pursued other measures restricting DEI. A January executive action criticized what it called “illegal DEI and DEIA policies,” and in March the Office of Head Start emailed grant recipients saying it would no longer approve funding requests for activities “that promote or take part in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.” The lawsuit and its attached declaration made the contested list public; according to the filings the list of words “to limit or avoid” begins on page 31 of the declaration.