On July 18, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), announced that the U.S. Department of Education will officially release critical funding to support 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

This announcement comes after Senator Capito led a group of her Republican colleagues in a letter this week to Russell Vought, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), advocating to release anticipated education formula funding—an issue she has heard about directly from impacted individuals. Click here to read the full letter.

In addition to Senator Capito, the following senators signed the letter: John Boozman (R-Ark.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).

“21st Century Community Learning Centers offer important services that many West Virginians rely on. This program supports states in providing quality after-school and summer learning programs for students while enabling their parents to work and contribute to local economies. We should be supporting education opportunities like these. I made this clear to OMB Director Vought and was glad he followed through on my request to release these critical funds. Doing so will help our students in West Virginia and across the country thrive,” Senator Capito said.

On July 14, 24 states, as well as the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Director Vought, President Donald Trump, and the United States regarding the more than $6 billion in education funding that they claimed to be “unlawfully frozen” by the Trump administration.

This litigation was filed following a June 30 letter from the U.S. Department of Education stating “Given the change in Administrations, the Department is reviewing the FY 2025 funding for the [Title I-C, II-A, III-A, IV-A, IV-B] grant program(s), and decisions have not yet been made concerning submissions and awards for this upcoming academic year. Accordingly, the Department will not be issuing Grant Award Notifications obligating funds for these programs on July 1 prior to completing that review. The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities.”

Impacted programs include programs for English language learners, programs that promote and enhance effective classroom instruction, improve school conditions and technology use in the classroom, and programs that establish and expand community learning centers for academic and extracurricular enrichments, court documents continue, adding that the funding was required by Congress and required to be distributed on July 1 in order for school districts to budget accordingly.

“Essential summer school and afterschool programs, through which Plaintiff States and their instrumentalities provide childcare to working parents of school-age children, have been or will need to be entirely cancelled as a result of the ED Funding Freeze,” according to court documents. The abrupt freeze is wreaking similar havoc on key teacher training programs as well as programs that make school more accessible to children with special learning needs, such as English language learners. And the eleventh-hour notification left no time to address the momentous fiscal vacuum created by Defendants’ actions.”

Additionally, the plaintiffs stated that the funding freeze “severely impacts” adult education systems, especially for those who are working toward a diploma and English language learners.

The plaintiffs, including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, have asked for the courts to compel the defendants to appropriate the funds for the impacted programs back to the states.

West Virginia’s attorney general did not join the coalition in filing the lawsuit.

“While we’re pleased to see crucial dollars going to afterschool programs which are vital for students across the nation, the bottom line is this: Districts should not be in this impossible position where the Administration is denying funds that had already been appropriated to our public schools by Congress, said David R. Schuler, executive director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, regarding the release of Title IV-B “21st Century” funds. “The remaining funds must be released immediately – America’s children are counting on it.”