Judge blocks Trump administration from purging DEI-related terms from Head Start grant applications

By MORIAH BALINGIT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to remake Head Start, ordering it to stop purging words it associates with diversity, equity and inclusion from grant applications and barring it from laying off any more federal employees in the Office of Head Start.

The order came this week in a lawsuit filed in April against Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials. The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of illegally dismantling Head Start by shutting down federal Head Start offices and laying off half the staff. It also challenges the administration’s attempts to bar children who are in the U.S. illegally from Head Start programs and to ban language they view as suggestive of DEI.

The plaintiff organizations representing Head Start providers and parents said in a court filing last month that officials told a Head Start director in Wisconsin to axe the terms “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people” from her grant application. They later sent a list with nearly 200 words the department discouraged her from using in her application, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women....