Head Start funding to run out on Saturday as shutdown drags on, potentially affecting hundreds of N.M. children

Cynthia Nells — and the roughly 40 children she helps run early childhood programs for — are essentially on their own.

The centers Nells oversees, located in and around the Ramah Navajo chapter in Western New Mexico, receive funding through the federal government’s Head Start program, designed to kickstart the learning and development of children 5 and younger, particularly those from low-income families.

But because of the nearly monthlong shutdown of the federal government amid budgetary gridlock in the U.S. Capitol, Nells and other providers whose grant cycles start Nov. 1 are facing closure unless they can scrape enough money together to keep their doors open until funding starts flowing again.

“We are, in a sense, collateral damage,” Nells said Wednesday.

Hundreds of children part