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Council hears contingency planning as Head Start grant award remains uncertain
Summary
Chattanooga City Council members pressed city staff on contingency planning for early learning programs after staff said a key federal Head Start grant could total about $12,000,000 and that the city lacks revenue to replace it.
Chattanooga City Council members pressed city staff on contingency planning for early learning programs after staff said a key federal Head Start grant could total about $12,000,000 and that the city lacks revenue to replace it.
The proposed early learning budget for FY26 is $3,300,000, up about $60,000 from the prior year and holding 17 authorized positions, city staff reported. Staff said roughly half of the budget increase is an allocation for the new enterprise risk management fee.
“Because that grant is so large — one of them is $12,000,000 — at this juncture the city does not have the revenue to fund that should the federal funding go away,” a staff member said. “That would be … a worst case scenario, and the bottom falls out.”
Council members asked for a contingency plan that could preserve a reduced “skeleton” of operations if federal funding were not renewed. Staff said the administration has been running scenarios with Curtis and the early-learning team and will share options with the full council.
Council members also asked about workforce planning should the grant end. Staff said an off-ramp period (they estimated roughly 60 days as a plausible example) would be used to connect potentially displaced employees with city workforce resources and external partners for reemployment, training and micro-credentialing programs. Staff cited existing relationships with local providers and with Chattanooga State and other partners that could retain services or seats for children even if the city were not the grantee.
Council members requested regular updates and asked for a formal contingency plan that describes: which services would be scaled back, what positions are fully grant-funded, what the timeline would be if the grant is not renewed, and what workforce and family supports would be provided.
Staff also noted that the current Head Start grant term runs through June 30 and that the city expects to hear federal grant award decisions in the coming weeks; the city remains funded through the end of the program year until that date.
