August 1, 2025
Written by Tara Thomas, AESA Government Affairs Manager
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996—originally enacted to reform the nation’s welfare system—contains provisions that limit immigrants’ access to public benefits. The Trump administration recently announced it will invoke PRWORA to restrict immigrant families from receiving services it classifies as “similar to welfare,” including federally funded early childhood and career and technical education programs.
The HHS notice is open for public comment by August 13 in most states, and by September 3 in states involved in the litigation. AESA has drafted a comment template to help members submit comments in opposition of this ruling.
Comment Template:
The Honorable Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave SW
Washington, D.C. 20201Re: Notice: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA); Interpretation of “Federal Public Benefit”
On behalf of [organization], [Info about organization – “representing XXX programs” or “serving XXX students”, etc], I write in opposition to the new interpretation the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is making to include Head Start programs in the definition of a “Federal public benefit” under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
Head Start is an essential early education program that provides children from the most at-risk backgrounds–in particular those in foster care, experiencing homelessness, in poverty, or with disabilities or developmental delays-with a strong foundation that sets them up for a lifetime of learning and growth in school and beyond.
Head Start providers across the country work hard to support every child while facing numerous operational challenges like staffing shortages and limited resources. This action to exclude certain children from Head Start will create unnecessary administrative burden for programs and divert programs’ attention from their critical mission.
We agree with the concern raised by the National Head Start Association that this new policy would “place program staff in the impossible and inappropriate position of acting as immigration screeners.” Head Start providers are not equipped to navigate immigration-based eligibility determinations. Imposing a requirement to verify immigration status would add a significant unfunded administrative burden on providers.
Moreover, requiring providers to consider immigration status in eligibility decisions directly contradicts the program’s mission by excluding some of the most vulnerable children, those who are undocumented or living in mixed-status households, from this beneficial program.
We urge HHS to withdraw this policy shift and maintain the longstanding interpretation that excludes Head Start from the definition of “Federal public benefits.”
Steps to submit:
- Customize the comments
- Submit comments here
- There will be a green button at the top that says “submit a public comment”. Click that button then follow the prompts. You can copy and paste your comments into the text box or attach it as a PDF
If you have any questions or issues, contact Tara Thomas, tthomas@aasa.org.