Families experiencing homelessness in Fairfax County could lose guaranteed access to Head Start preschool slots under a federal proposal that eliminates reserved spots for homeless and foster children.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed rule, published Aug. 7, would scrap a requirement that Head Start centers hold about 3% of admission slots for such families, the Virginia Mercury first reported. The rule would also bar families from self-affirming their homeless status and remove regulatory references to health, mental health, dental and developmental screenings.

Fairfax County case managers currently steer homeless families with children under five toward Head Start and Early Head Start as part of the county's continuum of care for housing-unstable residents.

The proposed changes could disrupt that pipeline.

Virginia Head Start Association Director Dawn Ault said the loss of self-affirmation is especially troubling because the rule offers no clear alternative for families to prove their circumstances.

"I don't understand what kind of flexibility they're going to allow programs in determining if someone's homeless if they're not allowed to self-identify that," Ault told the Virginia Mercury.

Ault noted that providers could still voluntarily reserve slots even if the federal mandate disappears. But she questioned whether HHS would continue funding services it no longer requires.

The proposed rule would shrink roughly 130 pages of Head Start performance standards to 10, according to Ault. It would also eliminate classroom-size limits, reduce requirements for children with disabilities and multilingual learners, and slash the cap on administrative spending from 15% to 5% of grant funding.

Virginia has nearly 11,000 funded Head Start and Early Head Start spaces for children under five. The program serves families earning below the federal poverty line, about $30,000 a year for a family of four.

Lawrence Howerton, an outreach coordinator at the nonprofit Virginia Organizing, told the Mercury that Head Start staff serve as "identifiers" who can spot early signs of learning disabilities, behavioral health problems or unstable home lives. Howerton, who experienced housing instability as a child, said the proposed cuts target the families least able to absorb them.

In an Aug. 6 press release, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the rule aims to remove bureaucracy and expand access, projecting it could open as many as 236,000 new slots nationwide and save $2.2 billion. More than 150 Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, sent a letter calling the proposal a brazen attempt to dismantle the program, Yahoo News reported.

The public comment period closed Oct. 6 with 40,089 submissions, according to the Federal Register. HHS has not announced a timeline for reviewing those comments or issuing a final rule.