Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Third Update Regarding Impoundment of Federal Education Funds

I am reaching out to provide an important update about federal education funds for the 2025–2026 school year, following the latest update sent by Chief Deputies David Schapira and Ingrid Roberson on July 14, 2025.

On July 18, the California Department of Education (CDE) received notice from the United States Department of Education (ED) that the ED will release previously impounded funds for the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (21^st CCLC) grant program for the current federal fiscal year meant to benefit students in the 2025–2026 school year.

Last week, ED informed us that we should expect the Grant Award Notification (GAN) for the 21^st CCLC grant program Monday, July 21, 2025. CDE received the Grant Award Notification (GAN) yesterday and is working to complete the steps necessary to draw down and release the funds to local educational agencies as quickly as possible.

The 21^st CCLC funds represent $157.5 million of the nearly one billion dollars in impounded funds that California schools are waiting to receive. The Trump Administration continues the unlawful impoundment of Title I-C (Education of Migratory Children), Title II-A (Supporting Effective Instruction), Title III-A (English Language Acquisition, Enhancement, Academic Achievement), Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants), and Adult Basic Education Grants to States grant program dollars.

As stated in our July 14 communication, California is suing Secretary McMahon and the Trump Administration in federal court and seeking injunctive relief to require the administration to release all of these unlawfully impounded funds. Our team will also continue to engage with our congressional delegation to ensure future federal funding for these programs is secured in the fiscal year 2026 budget to support our students as intended.

We will continue to keep the field apprised of important information in response to federal actions related to public education. For a consolidated list of our responses to 2025 federal actions, please see the CDE 2025 Responses to Federal Actions web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/fa/.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction