Several states are urging U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to immediately restore previously approved pandemic relief funding that the Education Department canceled last week, even as her agency doubles down on a new appeal process for states and districts to release funding for projects they, in many cases, have already started.
New York will pursue 鈥渓egal redress鈥� over the department鈥檚 鈥渦nilateral, unexplained reversal鈥� if McMahon doesn鈥檛 withdraw the rule changes she announced on March 28, Daniel Morton-Bentley, the state鈥檚 deputy education commissioner, wrote in an .
Education chiefs in , , and have also sent sharply worded letters to McMahon in the last week, emphasizing the potential for school districts to face disrupted services, halted projects, and legal battles with contractors if the original rules for spending pandemic relief money aren鈥檛 restored.
鈥淭hese are not merely numbers on a spreadsheet; they represent critical services and supports that directly benefit our most vulnerable students,鈥� Lance Evans, Mississippi鈥檚 education chief, wrote in a letter to McMahon on April 2. Mississippi has tied up in the fresh confusion over late liquidation, Evans wrote.
Some districts have already stopped some services for students as the continuing federal funding chaos unfolds. The Baltimore school district that tutoring and after-school programs that thousands of students attend will shut down next week. Sylvan Learning this week, including some who worked with students with disabilities. A Catholic school in Mississippi on Friday was whose salaries are funded with federal pandemic aid.
McMahon wrote to schools shortly after business hours ended on Friday, March 28, announcing that the department had abruptly canceled all extensions it had granted to allow states and schools more time to spend COVID relief funds from programs including ESSER (for public schools), , and HCY (for supporting homeless children). McMahon said states could request spending extensions for specific projects, but that its blanket extensions were no longer in effect.
On Thursday, the department sent a outlining the new application process to get individual projects approved for extensions, or 鈥渓ate liquidation.鈥�
States and districts had to allocate the last set of pandemic relief funds to particular expenses by Sept. 30, 2024, and then spend, or 鈥渓iquidate,鈥� them by Jan. 30, 2025.
But more than 40 states secured approval in 2024 and early 2025 to extend spending deadlines for local districts and state education agencies to March 28, 2026. These funds were largely allocated for vendor expenses such as construction, tutoring, and mental health services.
Some states got 鈥渓ate liquidation鈥� approvals from the department as recently as last month, during the second Trump administration, though the process began during the Biden administration under Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
In an interview with Education Week on April 3, Cardona said districts and states came to him while he was in charge with earnest requests for more time to spend money in ways that support students.
McMahon鈥檚 sudden policy shift 鈥渟hows a clear lack of understanding of how our schools work and how our state systems work,鈥� Cardona said. 鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 another example of what happens when you鈥檙e not taking students into account, and their needs.鈥�
Some states will pursue appeals, while others want the department to reconsider
Upon learning that the department had nixed late liquidation without warning, state education agencies leapt into action.
Maryland recommended that districts stop spending federal pandemic funds. Nebraska ordered state contractors to stop work immediately. North Dakota said it plans to lobby state lawmakers to allocate makeup funds if the federal government doesn鈥檛 pay up. Kentucky .
McMahon鈥檚 March 28 letter came only days after her agency had that late liquidation policies wouldn鈥檛 change. The secretary offered one option for states and districts to regain the now-frozen funds: justify to the department why they鈥檙e necessary for COVID relief.
States that want to appeal late liquidation for individual projects鈥攐ne at a time or in batches鈥攈ave to include two main components in an email to the department under the new rules: 鈥渁 brief description of how a particular project鈥檚 extension is necessary to mitigate the effects of COVID on American students鈥� education,鈥� and 鈥渁 justification of why the Department should exercise its discretion to grant your request.鈥�
鈥淭he Department will review each request as it is received and work to provide a response as quickly as possible,鈥� Hayley Sanon, principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary in the department鈥檚 office of elementary and secondary education, wrote to states on April 3.
Some states have already begun work on appeals. North Dakota鈥檚 education department reviewed its 17 state-level projects that were approved for late liquidation and determined that 鈥渕eet the criteria for reconsideration,鈥� said Dale Wetzel, a spokesperson for the state education agency. They include professional development for math teachers, access to an AI-powered reading tutor program, and subsidized enrollment fees for students taking computer science classes.
Other states are more wary. Jill Briggs, Vermont鈥檚 deputy education secretary, that she expects appeals for roughly $16 million of halted pandemic funds in her state will be reviewed not by Education Department staffers, but by people associated with the Department of Government Efficiency team led by billionaire Elon Musk.
Spokespeople for several education departments said they have sent questions to the Education Department since the March 28 letter but haven鈥檛 received a response. During a webinar on April 3, a department staffer said the agency is still working through its emails and will respond to all of them, said Mary Lee Belz, a spokesperson for the North Carolina education department.
Cardona said he鈥檚 skeptical that the appeal process will work out for everyone seeking to restore funds.
鈥淭hese are the same people that are making up their own rules, and you鈥檙e going to ask them for additional help, or trust that it鈥檚 going to be done fairly?鈥� Cardona told Education Week. 鈥淓ither way it鈥檚 a tough situation for these district leaders who are trying their best to get our schools up to par, and provide support for our students.鈥�
Democratic members of Congress who met with McMahon on April 1 said the education secretary told them she would review letters from federal lawmakers as part of the appeal process.
McMahon 鈥渆xpressed that she is going to be looking at those letters from us, from Congress, individually, looking at how that funding has been spent individually, to ensure that it did go to addressing the learning loss that occurred across this country during COVID,鈥� Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Md., said during a press conference immediately after the meeting with McMahon. 鈥淚 think we all have some letters to write today.鈥�
Members of Congress from Massachusetts, including Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, on Thursday urging McMahon to restore all of the late liquidation approvals and saying they鈥檙e 鈥渁stonished at the callous disregard for the wellbeing of students, 糖心动漫vlog, and communities.鈥�
A spokesperson for the Education Department didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.
Construction, literacy, and technology projects are affected by the rule changes
Many districts that sought late liquidation approval needed more time for their construction contractors to wrap up facilities projects before receiving final payment.
The Waterbury district in Connecticut has work underway to install air-conditioning in 13 of its elementary school buildings, where temperatures have risen into the 90s on hot days in recent years. The district had requested late liquidation for the project so it could test the newly installed systems during the warmer months.
If the federal money doesn鈥檛 come through, the district will instead have to pull from its supply of local construction dollars, the superintendent .
In Brick, N.J., a contractor for a middle school got a because a local utility was too busy cleaning up storm damage elsewhere in the state to perform a required transformer installation on time. Now the district may lose $97,000 in ESSER funds. The state hasn鈥檛 yet said whether it will apply to extend the deadline for individual projects.
The federal Education Department鈥檚 press secretary for spending its pandemic funds on 鈥淏UILDINGS, rather than learning recovery.鈥� But in Massachusetts and elsewhere, construction wasn鈥檛 the only category of expenses affected by the rule changes.
Massachusetts was waiting to spend down ESSER funds on five regional centers that were helping teachers transition from emergency certification to provisional or permanent licenses.
Wisconsin鈥檚 education department has roughly $500,000 left to spend on a contract with the state鈥檚 Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board, a state government body that partners with the education system to provide services to homeless students. Those services will end if the state can鈥檛 access those federal dollars, a spokesperson for the state education agency said.
Oregon鈥檚 education department this week for which it expected to receive federal reimbursement.
Kentucky has $1 million of statewide technology investments now at risk, including a new student and parent registration system designed to be more secure against cyberattacks, and a new digital system for transmitting student transcripts from schools to universities.
And in Nevada, pandemic relief funds approved for late liquidation were covering salaries for 14 employees at the state education agency who work on initiatives like training for private schools, competency-based learning, and instructional enrichment. The agency in the last week laid off six of those employees, the .
Reimbursement requests from before the rules changed are weeks late
Even after two written dispatches from the department, it鈥檚 still not entirely clear which sets of money are held up by the sudden rule change, and which states can still expect to receive.
Prior to March 28, some states had handed out routine reimbursements to their districts that had submitted expenses they intended to cover with ESSER funds approved for late liquidation. The states then expected to collect federal reimbursement to cover the expenses.
The Education Department last year had granted a late liquidation approval to New Hampshire that covered $800,000 of HVAC spending for the Mascoma Valley district. The state submitted $270,000 worth of reimbursement requests to the federal government on the district鈥檚 behalf before March 28, but hadn鈥檛 gotten that money back from the federal government as of April 1.
Typically, the state would receive federal reimbursement within a day of requesting it. But after the U.S. Education Department , and then dismissed staff members who help with education grants in March, some states have reimbursements that have been stuck in limbo for weeks.
States鈥� varied approaches to handling federal education grants, and the complex tangle of pandemic-era funding programs caught up in the rule changes, have left everyone from state education chiefs to school district leaders bewildered.
Michigan issued a highlighting that the rule changes could affect as much as $40 million in federal funds, then to clarify that before March 28, the state had already reimbursed districts for $24 million.
Districts that received that state reimbursement won鈥檛 see their funding taken away. But the state, meanwhile, still believes it鈥檚 owed money from the federal government.
鈥淎ll $40 million is in jeopardy unless the U.S. Department of Education agrees to honor the previous extension approval request from the federal government,鈥� the statement says.
