Officials from local school districts say they are proceeding normally this school year but will be cautious about the 2026-27 school year budget after the U.S. Department of Education said it was withholding $6.9 billion in education funding for the new school year.
According to an L.A. County Office of Education statement, an estimated $800 million is included in the federal funding that is being withheld that would have been dispersed to California school districts.
“According to brief emails received from the U.S. Department of Education, the Trump Administration has impounded several streams of federal education funding, including Title I-C, II-A, III-A, IV-A, and IV-B, as well as Adult Basic Education Grants to States grant program, including the Integrated English Language and Civics Education program,” reads a California Department of Education letter sent to school districts.
These funds being withheld impact professional development, English learner and migrant students, and after-school and enrichment programs.
Nick Heinlein, assistant superintendent of business services for the Saugus Union School District, said that because the district’s percentage of unduplicated students, or its low-income students, English learners, and foster youth, is lower than other districts, the district does not receive a substantial amount of money from the federal government.
Heinlein said a rough estimate of $3.7 million is given to the district from federal funding. Of that amount, about $2.3 million is for special education and around $1.4 million is for professional development, English learner and migrant students, and after-school and enrichment programs.
“For us, we will proceed as normal until we know more about what is happening,” said Heinlein. “[Move] with caution, right? So, we’re not going to expand a program right now using federal funds knowing that they’re so in flux. School funding is so closely tied to your unduplicated percentage or that number of low-income, English learners, homeless and foster children, ours is so low, we really have to be extremely mindful of what we do in order to make sure that our programs are consistent from year to year.”
William S. Hart Union High School District Superintendent Michael Vierra said the district does receive the Title 2, Title 3 and some Title 4 funds that are being impacted but it doesn’t receive the Title 1-C funds.
“Definitely going to have an impact. I mean, whenever you lose funding, especially in such a quick manner when you’re anticipating it, it’s going to have an impact,” said Vierra. “The funds we receive from the federal government is a very small percentage of our overall budget and the majority of those funds are Title 1-A and special education.”
Vierra said that, when evaluating what it could impact, the district will go through a process with its budget and look at the most important areas it prioritizes and see where district officials can multi-fund the priorities.
“We’re right now making some adjustments, and we’re committed to having this not impact any service we provide to students or support for staff,” said Vierra.
He added that the district administrators had heard about the potential withholding of money, but they anticipated it to be for the 2026-27 school year. He said they started having the conversations early about having different funding sources so that the impact on students and staff would be limited.
Newhall School District Superintendent Leticia Hernandez also stated that there would not be an impact this school year but there could be a potential impact on the 2026-27 school year if the funds are not released again.
Hernandez said that, for this year, programs for the students will not suffer, and that the students are the district’s priority when it comes to evaluating what could be impacted.
She said that if the funds are withheld again in the next school year when they have to look over that budget, the district will have to rework it.
Irene Boden, assistant superintendent of business and administrative services for the Castaic Union School District, said the district would be proceeding as planned.
Boden said this school year’s total revenue is projected to be around $29.8 million and the federal funds they would have received accounted for $78,000. She said, looking at the larger picture, most of the impact will be able to be absorbed by the general fund but, looking ahead to next school year, the district may have to reevaluate the budget.
“For us, it’s 1% of our budget. It’s not going to really affect us and if we do anything, it’ll be on in the 2026-27 year where we’ll have to look at what we’re spending in those funds and see if they need to continue for our students or not,” said Boden.
A spokesperson from the Sulphur Springs Union School District could not be immediately reached on Thursday.
