Manhasset/Great Neck Head Start program will be open Monday, director says

The Manhasset/Great Neck Head Start program will be open Monday, its director said, after a computer glitch that had held up funding and threatened its shutdown was resolved.

Director Stephanie Chenault said earlier this week the program that serves low-income families was at risk of closing because it could not access the federal grant funds that keep it operating. That had followed a temporary freeze by the Trump administration on federal funding. But by midday Friday, Chenault said, the payment management system showed her grant noted as “request in progress” — a change from several days of “pending review.”

“Congressman [Tom] Suozzi spoke to everyone and anybody on our behalf to get this resolved and we are so grateful,” Chenault said Friday. “The program will be open Monday; we’re not closing.”

She said Suozzi also forwarded her a text from federal officials who oversee the program, indicating that the money should be in the bank Monday. 

Calls and emails to the Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start, were not immediately returned to confirm the funding would be available Monday.

On Wednesday, Chenault said her grant was funded last Saturday, but when she went to access the money Monday, the system said the request was pending review and the money was not available, Newsday previously reported.

Chenault said she contacted Suozzi’s office and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand as well as the Office of Head Start to get a resolution, Newsday previously reported.

In an email to Newsday, Suozzi said he spoke with Health and Human Services officials Friday morning, and they guaranteed him that the funding will be in Great Neck/Manhasset Head Start’s accounts by Monday. 

"I will continue to fight to protect critical programs that work for our vulnerable children and families," the email read. 

On Jan. 29, President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on federal funding but rescinded the order two days later.

Chenault said she was advised that because of the freeze, then the unfreeze, a glitch developed in the financial system, creating a backlog.

In an email to Newsday earlier this week, the press office for the Administration for Children and Families cited technical issues in the payment system that the Program Support Center was working to resolve, Newsday previously reported.

The Manhasset/Great Neck Head Start program serves about 46 children age 3 to 5 whose parents are mostly service workers, Newsday reported earlier. The program has been operating since 1966.

Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association, said there were about 52 Head Start programs that were not able to access their grant funding in the past week, Newsday reported earlier.