WOODBOURNE – U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro (NY-19) has been one of the leading government officials to look into the sudden closure of the Sullivan County Head Start Program.

Molinaro said he has been engaging with county and Federal partners since last Friday evening to figure out what went wrong and working to identify a backup facility. 

Molinaro said Wednesday that the Office of Head Start (OHS) had informed him that Sullivan County Head Start has decided to relinquish its Head Start grant. 

“In relinquishing its grant, OHS will now be able to transition Sullivan County’s Head Start program to an interim service provider,” Molinaro said. “A timeline for this transfer has not yet been set by OHS, but we are continuing to push them to get this resolved immediately. Having kids without childcare and providers without a job for this amount of time is unacceptable.”

Sullivan County Commissioner of Health and Human Services John Liddle said yesterday, “It is about a month turnaround for an interim agency to come in but they are working hard to accelerate the timeframe.”

Sullivan County Head Start was located at 393 State Route 52 Woodbourne since 1989 and runs Head Start and Early Head Start programs in the county. They also have two facilities in Monticello that are also currently closed. 

“I just want to emphasize that this decision to temporarily suspend services or to temporarily cease operation was a decision that was made solely by Sullivan County Head Start’s program leadership,” Director of the Office of Head Start at the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Khari Garvin said. “It is not or was not an action that was either required or initiated by the [Federal] Office of Head Start.”

Available Childcare

Healthy Kids reached out to the Democrat and said that if any Sullivan County families who were impacted by the closure of Head Start are in need of childcare slots, they have them. Healthy Kids has two licensed Childcare Centers, one at 518 Broadway in Monticello and another at 68 State Street in Liberty. 

Healthy Kids is a part of Healthy Kids Programs, which has been providing Before and After School, Summer Camp and Remote Learning Programs throughout the Northeast for over 16 years. They also have their Healthy Kids Early Learning program which focuses on Toddler, Preschool and Pre-K programs.  

“We are converting all available spaces to open more classrooms and should be able to open five new Preschool classrooms within the next two weeks,” said Heather Lynn, Chief Marketing and Registration Officer of Healthy Kids. “The tuition is parent pay and we accept Childcare Assistance from the Department of Social Services. We even offer a four-week grace period where no tuition is paid while families apply for assistance.”

More information on Healthy Kids can be found on their website, www.HealthyKidsPrograms.com, and families can email elcregistration@healthykidsprograms.com or call 845-330-0200 to learn more.