How The Government Shut Down Is Affecting Kids & Families

The government shutdown began on October 1 and has continued through the beginning of this week with no resolution in sight. While we know a few obvious things that happen when the government shuts down, many might not be familiar with how these shutdowns affects kids and families across the country — especially when it comes to national assistance programs like WIC and Head Start.

Here’s a quick look at what’s happening right now with federal programming that affects kids and families — and what we should be on the lookout for if the shutdown lasts for weeks or months.

Impacts of the government shutdown happening now or soon:

• Millions of families could lose WIC benefits within a week or two. The national program, which services 7 million parents, infants, and children, says that its food service literally saves lives, but families may have difficulty receiving funds by October 15.

• National parks may be closed or have limited services. Some parks, like White Sands National Park, have closed completely. Others are open but have very limited services that make visiting the parks dangerous or just difficult. Some parks are operating on donations and some are operating with very limited staff and resources.

• The Education Department (ED) is operating at 5% capacity, and the small number of workers who continue their jobs are not being paid. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that the department will make grant funds for Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act available as usual.

• The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigations, part of the ED, is ceasing work until the shutdown is over. This office has already been gutted by the Trump administration.

• The Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art (NGA) are using private funds and funding from prior years to keep their doors open temporarily, but they have only said that this will be the case through October 6.

• The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), which provides after school activities for military kids around the world, has stopped all operations, leaving about 67,000 kids without sports, games, or other extracurriculars like school dances.

Future impacts in a few weeks or months:

• The National School Lunch Program, the National School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program have contingency plans for funding that will help them survive for several weeks or even a few months. However, these programs will be in danger in the case of a long shut down.

• While SNAP payments already went out on October 1, a longer government shut down could put the national food assistance program in jeopardy.

• Head Start programs, which are not run by federal employees, will not be affected by the shut down in the short term. But if it drags on the program warns of programming closures and employee furloughs.

Many of these programs and agencies rely on grants that are distributed at certain times of the year or have emergency funds for uncertain times like these. But the longer the shut down lasts, the more these services will be in danger of stalling, shuttering, or limiting help.