The Brief

Starting this week, the Trump administration will resume collections on defaulted student loans. This means the Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid can take funds from borrowers' tax refunds, Social Security benefits and wages.

Given this change, what should you keep an eye on if you have federal student debt? Experts say that if you have student loans, it’s time to be vigilant.

For this guide, LAist reached out to multiple college affordability advocates, and heard back from spokespeople for:

• EdTrust
• The Institute for College Access & Success
• The National College Attainment Network, and 
• The Student Borrower Protection Center

What federal changes are in motion?

In recent months, the Trump administration has taken actions that could significantly affect federal student loan borrowers, including more than 3.8 million Californians.

After moving to dismantle the Department of Education, the president issued an executive order that aims to deny debt relief to public servants whose work he’s deemed “illegal,” including those who provide aid for undocumented immigrants or gender-affirming care.

The administration also announced that the country's $1.6 trillion student debt portfolio will be transferred from the Education Department to the Small Business Administration. Both agencies are facing mass layoffs.

All the while, 8 million borrowers have been in limbo because of lawsuits against Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE), a Biden-era repayment plan that offered low monthly bills and promised not to let original balances build up due to unpaid interest. Those borrowers’ payments have been on pause for months.

What to do if you have federal student debt

Know your current situation. If you haven’t taken a good look at your debt recently, the college affordability advocates said it’s time to go to studentaid.gov, make sure your contact information is up-to-date, and verify the name of your student loan servicer. (It may have changed.) Jessica Thompson, senior vice president at the Institute for College Access & Success, also recommends taking screenshots of all your information and keeping it in a secure file.

If the Trump administration succeeds in making the changes it has called for, “there's going to be a lot of movement and shuffling and reprogramming,” Thompson said. “We're very concerned that customer service is not going to be up for this task because of the cuts that have been made at the Department of Education.”

Borrowers need to have records. Document how much you owe and how much you’ve paid, in case anything goes awry. If you are in an income-driven plan or working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), be sure to document that too, Thompson said.

Victoria Jackson, assistant director of higher education policy at EdTrust, suggests borrowers download their data file, along with copies of their master promissory notes (the contract to take out student loans).

Be sure to stay in good standing. The federal government is reporting delinquency, Thompson added, which can affect your credit score. “If you are looking at a [bill] that you can't afford, call your servicer and see what's possible for you,” she said.

Focus on current policy, not on what might happen

MorraLee Keller, a spokesperson for the National College Attainment Network, said borrowers should “stay on top of any changes that Congress may make,” without letting political headlines derail them.

For instance: Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, underscored that despite President Donald Trump’s executive order, PSLF eligibility has not changed. “Only an act of Congress can end this program or fundamentally change it in any way,” she added. “So keep making your payments, so you can stay on track toward that relief.”

Also, although the SAVE plan remains unavailable, borrowers can apply for the Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plans.

“Every federal loan borrower has the right to tie their monthly payment to their income and to see cancellation after 20 or 25 years,” Canchola Bañez said. “Ensuring that folks know that these are resources that are still at their disposal is very important."

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed significant changes to Head Start, the nation's early education program for children from low-income families. The move would diminish the program's federal standards and give states and parents more control.

"We have 1,600 Head Start providers across the country," Alex Adams, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' assistant secretary for family support, said in a call with reporters. "And one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington cannot fully account for the realities facing these 1,600 grantees."

Head Start not only provides preschool and childcare, but also meals and support services for qualifying families. It now serves more than 700,000 kids each year from birth to age 5.

Since its launch in 1965, the $12 billion HHS program has, for the most part, enjoyed bipartisan support. Lawmakers often cite it as a success — including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during the call with reporters announcing these changes. But in recent years, some conservatives have criticized Head Start, saying it wastes money and fails to have a lasting impact on students.

Aiming to cut costs

The new proposal would limit the amount of money Head Start centers can spend on administrative overhead, from a 15% cap to 5%. This change should save the government $2.2 billion, Adams said, which it plans to reinvest in the program. The goal is to create 200,000 more spots for children, he said.

To get those costs down, the administration said it proposes cutting regulations and "compliance-driven activities," according to a press release. Similarly, they are shifting decisions about several standards — such as student-teacher ratios, education requirements, background checks and transportation practices — back to states.

Childcare providers are not sold on the proposal.

"If we look at the previous actions of the administration, what they have done is not in favor of expanding the program," said Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, senior vice president with Start Early, an Illinois-based Head Start partner.

"Is it enough to just bring kids in the door if we're not actually giving kids and families what they need?"

Sanchez Fuentes said administrative costs are not only things like payroll and day-to-day operations, but also help fill gaps in care. "If you, for example, have children with disabilities you [can use] some of those funds to pay for additional special services or staff with specialties who could come in and support kids."

The administration's proposal also says parents are children's primary teachers and seeks to bring in more parent opinions on "structure and curriculum" into the classrooms and emphasizes nutrition and exercise.

Loosening the standards

Head Start's current standards are laid out in a detailed 133-page guide. The manual is used not only by the program's centers, but also by many unaffiliated private childcare centers across the country.

These standards include safety guidelines, spell out who is eligible for Head Start and provide detailed rules — such as the requirement that kids in the program brush their teeth once daily with fluoride toothpaste.

Erica Phillips, the executive director for the National Association for Family Child Care, said about 10% of her members are Early Head Start childcare partners, while the rest are home-based providers around the country.

"The Head Start performance standards were a consistent … evidence-based set of standards," she said. "It can be helpful to have a nationally recognized benchmark."

Phillips said her organization will be on the lookout for variations across states. She said she worries "quality is now dependent on your ZIP code or on your geography."

The Trump administration sees it differently.

"Flexibility is permission. It's not a mandate," Adams said. "The opportunity for these programs to make a different decision does not necessarily mean they must make a different decision."

The changes did not come as a complete surprise: The conservative Heritage Foundation has long criticized the program, saying it "doesn't work." In Project 2025, the foundation's policy blueprint that the Trump administration has taken many cues from, the message is clear — eliminate Head Start.

Advocates see what they characterize as the erosion of quality and decrease in standards as the first step in dismantling the program.

A long runway

Thursday's announcement came in the form of a notice of proposed rulemaking, or NPRM. It kicks off a lengthy, formalized process of public comment and talks with stakeholders. It could be six months to a year before any new standards take effect.

"I just really want folks to know Head Start is open," said Tommy Sheridan, deputy director at the National Head Start Association (NHSA), a nonprofit that advocates for the program. "The quality of Head Start children and families truly comes from the people that are running Head Start programs. Those folks are going to be the same. They're going to be able to do that."

The administration says the NPRM will be published in the Federal Register on Friday and be open to public comment for 60 days.

Edited by: Natalie Escobar
Copyright 2026 NPR

A recent report from Feeding America shows food insecurity increased year over year between 2022 and 2024. Advocates say today’s reality could be much worse.

The report published last week showed that about 1 in 6 kids in Orange County experienced food insecurity in 2024 — that’s up 27% from the year before.

For some advocates, the report published last week was not surprising.

“With the SNAP benefits being reduced and the persistent inflation, particularly food inflation and energy inflation, and the lack of wages keeping up, something's got to give,” LaVal Brewer, president and CEO at South County Outreach, said.

Experts say the snapshot of food insecurity in Orange County could tell us more about today’s needs.

Who else did the report capture? 

Overall, 1 in 8 O.C. residents were food insecure in 2024 — up 6% from the year before.

The problem also disproportionately affected communities of color. According to the report, 29% of Black residents and 18% of Latinos in Orange County experienced food insecurity.

Nearly half of people experiencing food insecurity have incomes too high to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

What does it mean to be food insecure? 

Food insecurity is not knowing where your next meal will come from. A lot of factors can lead to this, like low or inconsistent income, access to nutritious foods and the cost of living.

Claudia Bonilla Keller, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, told LAist some people might not doubt that they’ll have access to food, but they might not know what they’re having for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

What does this report tell us about today? 

The findings from this report were recorded in 2024, before the federal government made changes to food programs, like SNAP. Experts say food insecurity today is likely much worse and worsening.

“Since the sunsetting of the COVID-era benefits, the onset of inflation and the high price of fuel, and now changes to the safety net, what we've seen is a constant downward,” Keller said.

The report is compiled annually using data from national survey responses, local unemployment rates, and median incomes across all U.S. counties.

What to know about hunger 

Keller said food insecurity ebbs and flows throughout the year, but spikes in the summer.

“But for families with children, we know that it spikes in the summer, also at the end of the year, for the long holiday breaks when students lose access to federally reimbursed meals,” Keller said. “Those meals can be two, even three, that families depend on to feed their kids.”

Bill Bracken is the founder and executive director of Bracken’s Kitchen — a nonprofit that specializes in food rescue, culinary training and feeding the community.

In the summer, he said, children suffer the most, and the same can be said for some college students.

“We just happened to walk past a student who saw our logo on our uniforms and stopped and thanked us so much because he recognized the logo from the meals he gets from the (UCI) Food Hub,” Bracken said. “He's so grateful and just happy that we're able to provide something that he can pop in the microwave and eat right away.”

Nevertheless, like hunger, food waste is also at an all-time high.

“That's the sad part,” Bracken told LAist. “With all the need, we're still wasting more food than ever before. We're going to rescue more food this year than we ever have, and we'll produce more meals than we ever have.”

When information is collected again, Brewer said, the numbers will be significantly worse, especially for those who no longer qualify for food benefits.

“Those people who were not spending money on food because they were receiving a benefit from the federal government, from our tax dollars, no longer have that support,” Brewer said. “It's not like those people just suddenly earned more money to be able to cover their food costs.”

Rent, mortgage, car notes, and child care are non-negotiables, Brewer added, “so you're going to be food insecure because that's something you can actually manage and control.”