Another big change from the Department of Education late last month has sent some Illinois school districts reeling.
Schools across Illinois are poised to lose roughly $77.25 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds to support the highest-needs students, says the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) in a press release.
In Illinois, the decision affects 27 school school districts, two Regional Offices of Education, and three other grantees, says ISBE. Some of that funding would have been used for essential services, like transportation for homeless children, adaptive technology for students with disabilities and after-school tutoring.
Read more: What Illinois Parents Should Know About Administration’s Changes to the Department of Education
The ISBE described the Department’s decision as “clawing back” funding that was already promised to some of the state’s neediest children.
“Our most at-risk students are having resources their districts were promised stripped away for political gain, and Illinois will not stand by and let this kind of cruelty abide,” said Governor JB Pritzker in a press release. “Every dollar of these funds would go to support districts in need of every available support, and instead the administration is making it harder yet again for Illinois families to live, work, and get an education.”
Why is the Department “clawing back” pandemic-relief funds?
The change comes after the Department of Education took back its agreement to allow schools to finish spending the COVID-19 pandemic money they were originally given.
Funds were supposed to be available to use until March 2026, but the Department says the deadline to use the money is now over. School districts knew the deadline to use the funds was approaching, and had appropriated the funds as they were told to do.
In a letter to state education agencies on March 28, 2025, Secretary Linda McMahon alerted education leaders the money would be taken away. McMahon said the funds are unnecessary now that the pandemic has ended, but school leaders across the country disagree.
McMahon’s abrupt change to school funding is already facing a legal challenge from sixteen states, including Illinois.
Can districts apply for exemptions and still receive the funds?
About 98.5 percent of the state’s federal pandemic relief funds were already spent. Schools had been approved to spend the remaining $77.25 million due to account for “supply chain issues, staffing shortages, and other delays due to the pandemic,” says ISBE.
The Department will consider extensions to use the funds on a case-by-case basis, but district’s must explain how the funding will “mitigate the effects of COVID on American students’ education.”
Some school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, have used all pandemic funding and will be unaffected by the change, reports Chalkbeat Chicago.
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