Northampton agencies discuss potential cuts to Federal funding

This article has been edited to more accurately reflect the comments of Dr. Lisa Martin.

By Ava Canade 

At the August 12th meeting of the Northampton Board of Supervisors representatives of the Eastern Shore Area Agency on Aging and ESVA Head Start, Department of Social Services, and Northampton County Public Schools reported about the possible impacts on their agencies due to federal budget cuts. 

Donna Smith, CEO of Eastern Shore Area Agency on Aging and ESVA Head Start, discussed the services that ESAAA provides to residents of the Shore including Head Start, meal delivery, transportation, and social events for seniors. 

A total of 289 Northampton clients received social services out of 438 total between Accomac and Northampton in 2024. She highlighted Head Start’s enrollment of 218 families and 236 meals delivered to seniors which consisted of 20 meals delivered 2 times a week. Head Start, meal delivery, and transportation are some of the key programs that her agency delivers to residents. 

With the recent federal budget cuts, Smith said that the shortfall the agency often operates at will continue to grow. One impact of a larger shortfall could be that they could lose funding for 47 kids to enroll in Head Start. 

Mozella Francis, Director of Social Services for Northampton County, discussed the financial implications of the cuts on Northampton County along with the possibility of lowered services as a result of the cuts. She said that under the Medicaid expansion passed in 2018, 1,250 people were able to get on Medicaid and are now at the greatest risk of losing coverage because of new work requirements. 

Under the new reconciliation bill passed in Congress known as the “Big Beautiful Bill”, starting October 1st, 2026 the funding arrangement for SNAP would go from 50/50 between the federal government and the states to 75 on the states and 25 on the federal government. With roughly 3,000 residents using SNAP, many of whom are children or elderly, Northampton County could see costs up to $750,000 in order to keep the Department of Social Services whole if the state of Virginia decides to pass the extra costs to localities. 

Lisa Martin, Superintendent of Northampton County Public Schools, presented a timeline of how the federal cuts have already affected NCPS. 

On June 30, the Virginia Department of Education was notified that several federal education grants slated for disbursement to states on July 1st had been put on hold, pending review by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the US Department of Education. The affected programs focused on the education of migratory students, teacher retention funds, education for those with limited English proficiency, student support and dual enrollment/honors programs, and afterschool learning programs for grades K-6.

Dr. Martin added that as of July 25^th, all of the affected school grant funding had been released by the federal government to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE).  She further clarified that the school division does still await final grant award notifications, which VDOE typically announces by late September, once they have finalized the formula-based calculations used to allocate Virginia’s federal grant award out to qualifying school divisions.    

Martin emphasized that although the paused grants were ultimately approved, there must still be advocacy for the continued funding for these programs in future federal budget cycles. 

All three heads of agencies reiterated that they are working to try and keep the same levels of quality and service that they have had already even in the face of federal budget cuts.