142 people are expected to be laid off in several Kentucky counties. Who will lose jobs?

A program that provides Head Start for youngsters in Central and Eastern Kentucky expects to layoff 142 of its more than 300 employees after losing a federal grant, officials said.

The Head Start program promotes school readiness of children under 5 from low-income families, its website said.

Karen Atkins, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky River Foothills Development Council, Inc. on Wednesday confirmed a Richmond Register report that the Kentucky River Foothills expects to lay off 68 workers from Madison County, 35 from Powell, 11 from Clark, nine each from Estill and Laurel, seven from Jackson, two from Garrard, and one from Rockcastle.

Four employees will be cut Dec 1, while the other 138 will be laid off on Jan. 1, 2019, the newspaper said. Of the total, 135 are Head Start workers, and seven others work elsewhere with the agency, Atkins told the Herald-Leader.

Atkins told the Herald-Leader that the agency has been notified that it was not the highest ranked applicant in a recent Head Start competitive bid process.

The agency was awarded a contract extension through December 2018 to provide the federal Office of Head Start/Health and Human Services time to finalize negotiations with another provider, which had not been publicly identified.

Atkins said Head Start services will be uninterrupted during the transition to the new Head Start provider.

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 7:47 AM.