Thirteen Head Start centers in northern Illinois operated by Two Rivers Head Start Agency were closed today because of a “glitch” in their systems that prevented them from accessing grant funds to pay teachers and staff.
Diane Lacey, director of the Two Rivers Head Start Agency, which operates Head Start centers in Kane, Kendall, DeKalb, Grundy and Boone counties, said the government shutdown was partially to blame for the closures because it caused furloughs of administrative Head Start staff who would have been able to solve the problem last week, had they been working.
“If the government shutdown wasn’t in effect, all these people in the office of Head Start would be working,” Lacey said. “They’d be there and able to fix our problem.”
Instead, Lacey said, her agency had to wait days for the understaffed Head Start office in Springfield to start fixing the problem. Lacey said the office was “working feverishly” today to restore her agency’s access to its grant money.
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