Kids went home Thursday afternoon from the Head Start Center in Orange City unaware that their weekly schedule may be upended.
Without an open government, the money to keep the Head Start program open there and other sites across Volusia County is held up.
Adults like Brittney Carpenter know all too well what's on the line.
“In order for me to get my check every month, I have to go to school," Carpenter said. "I can't go to school if my son can't go to school.”
Felicia Toto has family who can watch her son David. But the Head Start program is much more than that for her.
“Him being the only child in the house, this is also not only teaching him school stuff, but how to get along with other children, to share, to make friends,” Toto said.
Heidi Rand runs the Head Start program for Mid Florida Community Services here in Volusia County. Their application for grant funding was in on time, but the payment schedule fell on October 1.
Not every county has that problem. For instance, Brevard County's Head Start program is run by the school district, and that program got its federal money long before the shut down.
And remember sequestration? A shut down is just an insult added to that injury.
“$472,000. Those of us that work here will not forget about that,” Rand says that's how much money the program lost once sequestration began.
She adds, the kids in her program could probably teach lawmakers a thing or two.
“We talk to our children as they walk in the doors every day about getting along and learning how to compromise," Rand said. "And when you compromise with each other, that's how you make friends and that's how things get done.”
Some 624 children are enrolled in the Volusia Head Start program.
About 125 people are employed.
Again, if a last-minute deal can't be reached tomorrow or over the weekend, they'll be out of school and work Monday.