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are in this position to
come to us.

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>> All right. Thank you so
much.

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shutdown became the longest
in U.S. history, the

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impacts piled up across
Wisconsin early learning

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Head Start programs had to
close down, shuttering

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child care programing for
hundreds of children. One

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of them covers five
counties and is run by the

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Southwestern Wisconsin
Community Action Program.

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It closed nine Head Start
classrooms at the start of

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this month. We're joined
now by the director of Head

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Start programs there, Tawny
Hardyman. And thanks very

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much for being here.
>> Thank you.

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>> So I see that you are
joining us from one of your

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empty classrooms. How hard
is this for you to see

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happen?
>> Very difficult. Even

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though this is out of our
control, we we feel really

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responsible for our
families and the children

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and the impacts that we
make within their lives.

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And so it's really hard to
have told the families this

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after you've encouraged
them to, you know, come to

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your center, enroll in your
program to see the empty

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classroom is hard. These
are three and four year old

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children here at this
center. They have fun every

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day. We have great teachers
here and we just worry

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about, you know, what are
they doing? We miss them.

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>> How disruptive is this
in the lives of the

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families whose children are
there?

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>> It's extremely
as three and four year old

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children, it takes a little
while to transition into a

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classroom and to get
accustomed to things. And

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then suddenly this routine
that they've been in every

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week ends and they're kind
of wondering what's going

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on. Additionally, with
families, they rely on

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these classrooms for
childcare. While some of

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the families go to work or
school, and they have when

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they came to our program in
September, they would have

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let go of a different
enrollment slot,

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potentially at another
childcare provider. This

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area is also a childcare
desert in many of our

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communities. So they were
having struggles trying to

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find other arrangements for
their children. If they

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don't have family or
friends that are able to

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help them. Another thing
that impacts the families

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is that these children
receive breakfast, lunch

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and snack at our centers
every day. Many families

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were really wondering about
their food security.

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Additionally.
>> How are they dealing

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with that? Do you know?
>> They were very upset.

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Very worried. Scrambling,
you know, wondering what

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were they going to do,
asking our staff if they

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would be available to watch
their children while they

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went to work, you know, so,
yeah, they, they just kind

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of feel like the rug was
yanked out from underneath

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them. They had a routine
going. They had made

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arrangements, like I said,
to work or go to school.

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And then in the middle, you
know, right at the end of

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October, we had to let them
know that our funding has

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not been approved for the
next 12 month grant cycle.

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>> How valuable are the
benefits of Head Start

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programing for these
children?

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biggest things that kids
learn are some social

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skills, like how do I how
do I learn to listen to

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instructions? How do I
learn to follow the

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routines of school? How do
I make friends? You know,

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those things are so much
even more important than

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the ABCs. And one two
threes is just learning how

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to listen. When? When do I
sit still? When do I get up

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to go? And this might be
their first experience away

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from home, so it gets them
prepared for what that

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environment would be like
at the school. They are

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adjusted. They're used to
coming in. Now we're

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worried if the shutdown
happens, you know, for a

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long period of time, how
difficult will it be for

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them to transition back
into this setting.

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>> Even if or when federal
funding resumes? Will you

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be able to kind of
seamlessly bring your

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programing back up to speed?
>> It won't be as quick as

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what a person might think.
So when the federal

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government shut down our
regional offices, national

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offices that support
programs, those staff were

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furloughed on October 1st.
So we have grant

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applications. As I said,
our grant cycle runs from

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November 1st to October
31st, and that grant

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application is in there in
the system waiting to be

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awarded. So once the
government opens back up,

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they will have to recall
those federal, well, those

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regional and national
workers for Head Start.

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They'll have to review our
application again. And then

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we have to wait for the
notice of award. So we've

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our understanding is that
could take about 1 to 2

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weeks. And then once we
receive the notice of award

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it hopefully it will be for
the full amount that we

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have, you know, requested.
Then we would put together

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a plan, recall staff, give
them a little bit of time

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00:05:05,639 --> 00:05:08,775
in the classroom to get
such as getting food,

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groceries for breakfast,
lunch and snack and then

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contact families. So it's
going to take us at least

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00:05:15,249 --> 00:05:20,087
probably three weeks would
government reopens.

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>> Tawny Hardyman, thanks
very much for explaining to