The Trump Administration’s decision to withhold grant funding to Pennsylvania schools could jeopardize programs for homeless students and cause budget shortfalls for districts and intermediate units.
Pennsylvania joined a multi-state lawsuit last week, challenging the decision to revoke more than $184 million in funding to the state. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education had granted an extension to access previously awarded funds. Without warning in March, federal education Secretary Linda McMahon rescinded the extension and said the period for accessing the funds had expired, according to the lawsuit.
Many schools and intermediate units in the region had already spent the money and awaited reimbursement. The funding, part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan, includes Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) and Homeless Children and Youth allocations. Money is owed to 116 Pennsylvania school districts, charter schools, intermediate units and career and technical centers, according to the administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, located in Milton, provides services for homeless students statewide. The agency planned to use $2.5 million for mental health services, summer camps and an app students and families can use to connect to resources. The app had 14,000 users last month.
“These are resources that will be used by people all across the state, so it's a significant loss,” said John Kurelja, the intermediate unit’s executive director. “The hard part is, it's impacting the most vulnerable population we have, which is homeless students.”
The Luzerne County Intermediate Unit provides assistance to homeless and foster students in 17 counties and 78 school districts. About 3,000 students receive services annually, but that number jumped to about 3,600 students in the last year.
The agency awaits reimbursement of $363,952, for purchasing items such as gift cards for clothes and food for homeless students, temporary housing, books and internet service for homeless shelters, hygiene kits, curriculum materials and transportation for students in foster homes to remain included in their home school.
“We're hopeful that that money will be coming our way,” said Anthony Grieco, executive director of the Luzerne Intermediate Unit. “In the absence of that, we'll have to continue to work to try and figure out how to use future funding to offset some of those costs, which, at the end of the day, could potentially impact services to kids.”
The Scranton School District submitted for reimbursement of more than $6 million for salaries and benefits of staff who worked through the COVID-19 pandemic. The district planned to use the remaining $347,000 of its allocation for nursing contracts and installing water bottle filling stations in schools, according to a statement from the district.
Under the standard process for these grants, the state reimburses schools for expenses, and the federal government then reimburses the state. The lawsuit is co-led by New York, Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, D.C.
