The Trump administration is preparing a sweeping rollback of federal requirements for Head Start, the early childhood education and antipoverty program established in 1965, according to a New York Times report. Advocates and policy experts warn that the proposed changes could upend the nearly 60-year-old program.

Head Start, a cornerstone of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, was created to provide comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and family support services to children from low-income families. The program currently serves approximately 700,000 children under the age of 6 and has reached more than 30 million children since its inception. With an annual federal budget of roughly $12 billion, Head Start is administered by the Administration for Children and Families within the Department of Health and Human Services and operates through roughly 1,600 local grantees across all 50 states, territories, and tribal communities.

According to three anonymous sources familiar with the plan who spoke with The Times, the White House is considering changes that would eliminate most of Head Start's requirements governing math and literacy curricula, class sizes, medical screenings, home visits, and even the rule that children brush their teeth after meals. The performance standards targeted for elimination were most comprehensively updated in 2016, the first major revision since 1998, and incorporated findings from decades of early childhood development research.

Ruth Friedman, a child care policy expert, told The Times that the proposed changes amount to a "massive gutting" of the program. "Eliminating Head Start's performance standards guts the science-backed standards that ensure our youngest learners get what they need to arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed," Friedman said.

The administration's posture toward Head Start is not new. Last year, the White House attempted to cut off spending for the program, labeling it "radical" in official communications. A White House budget document at the time stated that ending Head Start would help end the "radical indoctrination of our children," The Times noted.

However, an anonymous White House official told The Times that federal funding for Head Start will remain in place and that the Trump administration intends to support efforts to reduce the administrative burden of operating the program.

The proposal has drawn concern from child welfare advocates who argue that the performance standards underpin decades of research on early childhood development and are essential to ensuring that children from disadvantaged backgrounds enter kindergarten prepared. If the changes proceed through a formal federal rulemaking process, they would be subject to a public notice-and-comment period before taking effect.