Sacramento, CA (March 18, 2026) — During Head Start Advocacy Day at the State Capitol, Assemblymembers Heather Hadwick (R–Alturas) and Patrick Ahrens (D–Silicon Valley) were honored with the Head Start Hero Award in recognition of their bipartisan leadership to help protect and preserve Head Start funding last year.
At a time of deep political division, the two lawmakers found common ground rooted in shared experience. Both Assemblymembers are graduates of Head Start and worked together—alongside a broad bipartisan coalition—to push back against threats to the program and ensure it continued serving children and families across California.
Head Start is a federally funded early childhood education program that provides comprehensive services—including education, health care, nutrition, and family support—to low-income children ages 0–5 and their families. Over the past six decades, the program has served nearly 40 million children nationwide, including more than 80,000 children annually in California.
