Titilola Tanimowo wouldn’t have been able to pursue her dreams if it wasn’t for free child care.

Full-time care for one child can cost over $15,000 a year where her kids attend school in Howard County and would have been out of reach for Tanimowo, a 35-year-old mother of three.

But because she was able to send her two daughters to preschool through Head Start, a free program funded by the federal government for low-income families, Tanimowo had enough free time to take college classes and grow her small floral design business. She loved that her daughters could learn their ABCs in a place they felt welcome, loved and safe, she said.

“I’m so glad I’m able to save that money and still get a very, very good quality education for them,” Tanimowo said.

Howard County is using money from a new grant to expand its Head Start program even more. For the first time, Howard County parents can get free child care for kids as young as 6 weeks through 2 years old through Early Head Start, adding three years worth of care and parental support for some families as the cost of living rises.

While there are locations scattered throughout the Baltimore area, Early Head Start didn’t exist in Howard County until now. That means previously, kids didn’t qualify for Head Start’s free early childhood education until they turned 3 and may have spent some of their most critical years for brain development shut out of classrooms.

And because the state isn’t currently giving out new child care scholarships, this may be the only free option for working and student parents who need a safe place for their kids to socialize and learn.

The $12.6 million, five-year grant to expand Head Start to younger kids was given to Howard County’s sole Head Start operator, the Community Action Council of Howard County Inc. The council now offers 32 Early Head Start slots and 108 Head Start seats for kids aged 3 through 5.

Community Action Council President Tracy Broccolino said Head Start is a lifeline for the families who receive it, especially those led by single mothers. Without Head Start, those women “aren’t able to work full-time. They aren’t able to grow their wages,” she said.

“Caring for infants and toddlers is a very costly endeavor,” Broccolino said. “The addition of Early Head Start, while it’s not 3,000 slots, it certainly is making a dent for those families.”

One of Tanimowo’s daughters has graduated from Head Start to kindergarten and her youngest, now 3 years old, is currently in the program.

Both girls attended the Children’s Learning Center on the Howard Community College campus, one of the council’s two centers offering Early Head Start. The other is the Bauder Education Center at Long Reach.

Ashleigh Peddicord manages the Dasher Green Center, one of five council early childhood education centers. While Dasher only offers regular Head Start now, Peddicord hopes to enroll younger kids by the end of the calendar year.

Peddicord said Head Start is unique for its “two-generation approach”: Centers work with families as a whole, offering services like job assistance for parents. Tanimowo said the Community Action Council sometimes offered free food for overwhelmed caregivers. Programs can also give parents what they need to keep teaching their kids at home, Peddicord said.

The council’s expansion grant comes at a time marred by attacks on the Head Start program. Though President Donald Trump did not cut Head Start’s funding in the 2026 budget as advocates feared, elimination of the program is included in Project 2025, a document that has guided much of Trump’s return to office. Jobs have been cut. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to keep undocumented kids out of Head Start classrooms as the result of a lawsuit Maryland joined.

But Howard County’s Head Start programs have also drawn support from elected officials at the county and congressional level.

“The awarding of this grant during such a time of shifting and changing really speaks to the confidence that our federal delegation has in us,” Broccolino said. “We were holding our collective breaths, and without their support, we couldn’t have done it.”

Overall, through both Head Start and state-funded pre-K classrooms, the Community Action Council can offer 400 full-day early-learning spots to kids up to 5 years old “designed to prepare them socially, emotionally, and academically for kindergarten” said council spokesperson Joanna Lake in an email.

As of Sept. 23, the council had filled 12 of the available 32 Early Head Start spots, Lake said. The low number may be due to the the expansion grant being awarded in July, which gave parents about a month to apply before the start of the school year, but applications are accepted year round.

According to the Maryland Family Network, around 1,100 kids live below the poverty line in Howard County. Since 2013, the Community Action Council has enrolled 3,500 children in Head Start programs.

“We rate every individual family as a win,” Peddicord said. “What we do is big, even if it’s only a small margin.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.