Will President Donald Trump’s federal grant freeze affect Fort Worth-area school districts?
Tarrant County and North Texas school officials are scrambling to figure out how a pause on federal grant money will affect their districts.
President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to pause grant and loan programs beginning Tuesday, Jan. 28 creating widespread concern and confusion among agencies and organizations that operate at least partly on federal funding.
On Tuesday, spokespeople in the Fort Worth, Arlington and Hurst-Euless-Bedford independent school districts said it was unclear whether or how their districts’ programs would be affected by the freeze.
School districts across the country rely on a number of sources of federal funding, including Title I funding that goes to districts that serve large numbers of low-income students and grants that support special education programs. The education publication Chalkbeat reported Monday that Title I funding and special education grants wouldn’t be affected, nor would federal student loans.
But the National Head Start Association reported that many early learning centers across the country weren’t able to draw down any of the federal funds they use to run their programs on Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon, the association released an updated statement saying Head Start agencies weren’t included in the freeze, so those centers had access to their funding again.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 4:00 PM.
