Judge issues nationwide block on Trump policy that cuts off Head Start for people in US illegally

By MAKIYA SEMINERA, AP Education Writer

A federal judge has issued a nationwide block on a Trump administration directive that prevented children in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program.

Head Start associations in several states filed suit against the policy change by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The ruling by a federal judge in Washington state on Thursday comes after a coalition of 21 Democratic attorney generals succeeded in temporarily halting the policy’s implementation within their own states .

With the new ruling, the policy is now on hold across the country.

In July, HHS proposed a rule reinterpretation to disallow immigrants in the country illegally from receiving certain social services, including He