As the White House paused federal grants and loans in a far-reaching executive order, early childhood education centers and states discovered Tuesday they could no longer access money they rely on to provide care for some of the nation’s neediest families and children.

Trump's directive to pause federal grants raised concerns for programs like Meals on Wheels and Head Start. While direct assistance such as Social Security and Medicare remains unaffected, uncertainty surrounds funding for community-based nutrition and early childhood education services reliant on federal grants.

A federal funding freeze from the Trump administration is creating widespread confusion among government and state programs, including Head Start schools in San Antonio. The spending freeze on federal assistance would affect everything from nonprofits,

The withdrawal of the federal freeze was a stunning about-face for President Donald Trump’s White House, which has so far pushed the envelope to reshape the federal government, sowing chaos and confusion in firing career civil servants, pausing foreign aid programs and offering federal workers a buyout.

The order is temporarily on ice, but uncertainty swirls around which programs would and wouldn't be hit by the federal aid freeze.

As President Donald Trump paused federal grants and loans in a far-reaching directive, early childhood education centers and states discovered Tuesday they could no longer access money they rely on to provide care for some of the nation's neediest families and children.