See EdWeek鈥檚 update to this story.
The nation鈥檚 school districts on Tuesday were swept into a nationwide avalanche of confusion and panic surrounding a Trump administration order the night before that sought to indefinitely suspend hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grant funding.
School districts and education policy experts spent much of Tuesday struggling to determine which education-related funding streams would be frozen as a result of the order, and wondering what the future held for the funds long-term.
Then, just minutes before the freeze order was set to take effect Tuesday evening, a federal district court judge in Washington halted it until a follow-up hearing scheduled for Monday could take place.
The Trump administration is aiming to launch a large-scale review of federal spending in an attempt to align it with the new president鈥檚 orders to eliminate federal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and crack down on programs he says are promoting 鈥済ender ideology.鈥�
By late Tuesday, the Trump administration had clarified that the nation鈥檚 largest federal funding streams for schools鈥擳itle I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act鈥攚ouldn鈥檛 be affected. But as the funding pause was set to take effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday, uncertainty remained over the National School Lunch Program and other K-12 programs.
District leaders across the country sprung into action when the prospect of a federal funding freeze surfaced, said Tara Thomas, government affairs manager for AASA, the School Superintendents Association.
鈥淚t created a lot of anxiety and uncertainty among our superintendents and education leaders when they have a much more important job to do. They鈥檙e responsible for running a school system, educating kids, preparing to be the workforce of the next generation,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 need to be worried about what a federal funding freeze headline could mean.鈥�
The order from the federal Office of Management and Budget quickly drew two legal challenges: one from a , and .
The nonprofit groups鈥� lawsuit and the attorneys general allege that President Donald Trump and the federal executive branch lack the constitutional authority to broadly withhold money that Congress has already appropriated. The temporary order halting the freeze came in response to the nonprofit groups鈥� legal challenge.
The School Nutrition Association, meanwhile, is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture 鈥渢o provide more detail on the extent to which this freeze will impact the programs鈥� that provide federal support for students to eat healthy meals at school, Diane Pratt-Heavner, the group鈥檚 spokesperson, said on Tuesday afternoon.
If the pause eventually takes effect and funding for school meals does stop flowing, districts will immediately wonder whether they鈥檒l get retroactive payments from the federal government once the pause ends, Thomas said.
鈥淭hose programs are running on paper-thin margins,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淒istricts have to pass a balanced budget and so, if the meals program goes in the red, they鈥檙e going to have to pull money from elsewhere.鈥�
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the school lunch program, didn鈥檛 answer questions from Education Week in time for publication.
There was significant uncertainty for much of the day over funding for the nation鈥檚 federally funded Head Start pre-K programs, including technical issues with the online platform that providers use to access federal funds. The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo later Tuesday specifying that the program wouldn鈥檛 be affected.
At Arapaho Charter High School in rural Wyoming, students on Tuesday morning were already fretting over social media rumors they had seen about funding cuts, said Katie Law, the school鈥檚 principal.
All of the school鈥檚 52 students qualify for free and reduced-price meals. Many experience homelessness.
鈥淜ids are getting off of the bus from breakfast going, 鈥榃hat was everybody talking about this morning, that we鈥檙e not going to get lunches anymore?鈥欌�� Law said.
The lack of certainty leads some to envision a worst-case scenario
Some federal programs for education are unlikely to experience immediate disruptions even if they鈥檙e included in a freeze order.
The federal Impact Aid program gives schools grants each year to compensate for a dearth of property tax revenue in districts that have federally owned land like military bases within their boundaries.
Those dollars flow directly from the federal government to school districts鈥� bank accounts soon after Congress appropriates them, so a freeze on federal grant funding wouldn鈥檛 affect Impact Aid recipients for now, said Nicole Russell, executive director of the National Association of Federally Impacted 69传媒.
鈥淢any of our school districts do receive other federal grant program funding,鈥� Russell said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e continuing to work with our partners in understanding what that means from a holistic perspective.鈥�
The lack of concrete answers hasn鈥檛 stopped district leaders from speculating about worst-case scenarios, said Sarah Abernathy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, an advocacy group.
鈥淓veryone is frantically scurrying around trying to understand what this means,鈥� Abernathy said. 鈥淓ven if funding isn鈥檛 stopped, it鈥檚 having repercussions in the education world because of the confusion and fear.鈥�
Who issued the funding freeze order, and how long will it last?
The federal Office of Management and Budget on Monday sent all federal agencies a two-page memo announcing that grant funding would halt beginning at 5 p.m. the next day, Jan. 28. Legal experts immediately raised alarms that the order appeared to violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
The document spells out a timeline of roughly two weeks for agencies to submit reports on their grant programs to the OMB for review and possible revision. One OMB document said the deadline was Feb. 7, while another listed Feb. 10.
But the administration didn鈥檛 say whether the funding freeze would be lifted once agencies submitted their reports. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, didn鈥檛 answer a question at her Tuesday briefing about when the freeze would end.
Which programs are affected by the order?
The U.S. Department of Education said 鈥渇ormula鈥� grant programs wouldn鈥檛 be affected by the freeze. It named Title I, which sends federal dollars to high-poverty schools, and IDEA, which supports special education services, as examples.
Meanwhile, the question of which grants the agency is deeming 鈥渄iscretionary鈥� remains unanswered. Formula funds such as Title I are considered discretionary spending in the federal budget, because they鈥檙e subject to regular congressional appropriations. Mandatory federal spending, such as Social Security and Medicare payments, continue each year without regular appropriations bills.
In the worst-case scenario, if districts were not able to draw down any of their federal funds, or request that their state do the same, the consequences would be disastrous, said Julia Martin, legislative director for the Bruman Group, a law firm that represents K-12 school districts.
Districts could default on contracts; be forced to pivot to state and local funds that they had planned to use for other things; or shut down programs altogether. Temporary layoffs could also be unavoidable for districts if federal funding became unavailable for an extended period of time.
鈥淚f they did stop payments in terms of lunch programs and breakfast programs, we鈥檙e not going to stop feeding kids, but it鈥檚 going to negatively impact our budgets,鈥� said Kenny Rodrequez, superintendent of the Grandview, Mo., schools. 鈥淲e would just be eating into reserves, and we would just continue to cover that expense and hope that we would get reimbursed again.鈥�
The ripple effects of the funding freeze have already extended far beyond K-12 schools as well, affecting everything from disaster relief aid to community health centers.
The OMB put out a memo on Tuesday afternoon saying Medicaid payments would not be disrupted鈥攂ut online portals for the program went down across the country around the same time. Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, Tuesday afternoon the outages would not affect funding for the program, which school districts use to pay for some services provided on campus.
Why did the federal government issue this order in the first place?
The OMB has asked federal agencies to examine their funding streams and answer whether the funds go to non-governmental organizations that provide services to 鈥渞emovable or illegal鈥� immigrants, support DEI and accessibility programs, or promote 鈥済ender ideology,鈥� among other items.
In Trump鈥檚 first week in office, his administration made swift work to implement a barrage of executive orders from the president. To comply with Trump鈥檚 order to end federal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, the U.S. Department of Education placed career staff charged with implementing DEI policies on paid administrative leave, disbanded several internal councils that advised on diversity and inclusion, and removed hundreds of DEI resources from its website.
Other Trump executive actions overturned Biden-era efforts to protect transgender students.
Exactly how programs that undergo a federal review would change following the review remains unclear, in part because the federal government may lack the authority to substantively change the terms of a federal grant program approved by Congress.
鈥淔or a school district in year two of a five-year federal grant, what happens to those funds as they continue to be part of this grant program?鈥� Thomas, of AASA, said.
During the White House press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Leavitt described the funding freeze as an effort to align federal grant funding with Trump鈥檚 executive orders.
鈥淚t means no more funding for illegal DEI programs, it means no more funding for the 鈥楪reen New Scam鈥� that has caused American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, it means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies,鈥� Leavitt said.
How does the federal funding freeze differ from what happens during a government shutdown?
The main difference, Martin, from the Bruman Group, said, is that recipients of federal funding can still spend money that鈥檚 already been allocated to them during a government shutdown resulting from Congress failing to pass a budget in time to keep the government operating.
鈥淭here is confidence that at the end of a shutdown contractors and other federal employees will be paid,鈥� Martin said. 鈥淗ere, there is a lot of uncertainty of what happens at the end of the two weeks.鈥�
For government shutdowns, the USDA stockpiles about three months of cash on hand to continue sending payments to school districts for reimbursing the costs of providing school meals. But this unprecedented order to freeze federal funding across the board might not come with the same safety net, Martin said.
