Updated: This story was updated Friday afternoon with new details about the timing of the federal funds the Trump administration is releasing.
The Trump administration next week will unfreeze billions of K-12 education dollars it has withheld from states since July 1, the Education Department told states Friday afternoon.
Roughly $5 billion for K-12 schools will flow beginning the week of July 28 to states through four K-12 education grant programs, according to a July 25 Department of Education letter obtained by Education Week.
Another $715 million for two adult education grant programs will also flow to states next week, according to a separate Department of Education letter obtained by Education Week.
The soon-to-be-unfrozen grant programs, according to the letters, are Title I-C for migrant education ($375 million); Title II-A for professional development and teacher training ($2.2 billion); Title III-A for English-learner services ($890 million); Title IV-A for academic enrichment ($1.3 billion); adult education ($629 million); and adult literacy and civics education ($86 million).
The administration last week released $1.4 billion in Title IV-B funds for before-and after-school programs.
News that the education funding freeze is ending first emerged July 25 at noon in a post on X from Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., one of a small handful of Congressional Republicans who publicly urged the Trump administration to release the money.
A senior administration official confirmed the news in an email to Education Week from the federal Office of Management and Budget.
“The programmatic review is over. Funds will be released to the states,” the statement reads. “Guardrails are in place to ensure these funds will not be used in violation of Executive Orders or administration policy.”
Both notices to states announcing the unfreezing of education funds emphasize that states must comply with a long list of federal civil rights laws—including several the Trump administration has used to punish states for policies that differ from its own.
Funding will start flowing to states next week
The announcement to state education agencies marks an abrupt and dramatic reversal from the Trump administration’s unprecedented decision to withhold, with less than one day’s notice, all funds from seven longstanding grant programs Congress voted in March to fund for the upcoming school year.
That move late last month sparked a firestorm of controversy and chaos nationwide, including lawsuits from two dozen Democratic state officials and, earlier this week, a coalition of school districts, state-level teachers’ unions, and education advocates.
Democrats in Congress condemned the freeze as illegal and unconstitutional.
Roughly a dozen Republicans on Capitol Hill, including 10 senators who represent rural states, called last week for the administration to immediately release the money—the most direct rebuke from federal Republicans to President Donald Trump’s education policies so far during his second term.
The vast majority of Republican lawmakers stayed silent on the funding freeze, even though almost all of them voted to approve the affected funds.
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.8 million American Federation of Teachers, on Friday afternoon announced the release of the funds to a standing ovation of hundreds of teachers at the union’s professional development conference in Washington.
In an interview with Education Week, Weingarten said she’s optimistic many schools will be able to get planned programming for students back on track.
“School districts plan weeks and months in advance; they don’t plan two minutes in advance,” Weingarten said.
Funding freeze twists have upended school districts’ budget planning
The administration began unthawing its funding freeze last week when it sent states $1.4 billion in Title IV-B funds for before- and after-school programs. Some of those programs had already begun dismissing employees and suspending services.
The seven affected grant programs were under review in an effort to root out a “radical leftwing agenda,” the federal Office of Management and Budget said in early July, without detailing the timeline or criteria for the review.
Since then, states and districts have been racing to understand the implications of this decision for the upcoming school year.
Many have already rejiggered budgets, laid off workers, or tapped alternative sources of funds for programs they intend to maintain with or without federal support.
Some of those decisions may be difficult for schools to immediately reverse—especially because Congress hasn’t yet weighed in on Trump’s proposal to eliminate the affected grant programs after the current school year.
Some school districts reported earlier in July that the delay in the funding already affected their ability to purchase materials and hire supplemental staff.
“Celebrate today, but keep organizing and keep advocating and using your voice so we can make sure that our students get the services that they need,” said Montserrat Garibay, who oversaw Title III funding as director of the Education Department’s English-language acquisition office under President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration has thrown federal education funding into chaos since Jan. 20—yanking already-awarded grant funds; changing spending rules and guidelines without warning; asking Congress to consider massive cuts. Its next moves remain unclear.
Politico reported earlier this week that the White House was preparing to send Congress a proposal to rescind education funds lawmakers allocated earlier this year.
It’s not clear whether these now-unfrozen grant funds were among the ones the Trump administration wanted permission to formally claw back-—or whether the administration still plans to attempt to rescind those funds with lawmakers’ approval.
