Fort Worth pauses student mentoring, mental health programs amid Trump funding freeze
School officials in Fort Worth are pausing four mentoring, student mental health and college attainment programs in response to a freeze on federal education grant funding Trump administration officials announced last month.
Last week, Fort Worth Independent School District administrators sent a memo to campus leaders notifying them that the district is pausing its work with four partner organizations — T3, Communities in Schools, My Brother’s Keeper/My Sister’s Keeper and Girls, Inc., because of the federal funding freeze. Those organizations provide services to students at campuses in Fort Worth ISD and other districts across Tarrant County.
The T3 Partnership, also known as Tarrant To and Through, works to get more Tarrant County students enrolled in college or other postsecondary classes, both during high school and after graduation. Communities in Schools of Greater Tarrant County works with 12 school districts in the Fort Worth area to provide mental health services for students. My Brother’s Keeper, My Sister’s Keeper and Girls, Inc. offer mentorship, academic and social support and opportunities for community engagement.
Tierney Tinnin, a spokesperson for Fort Worth ISD, said leaders from the district will work with partner organizations over the next several weeks to put together a plan that meets the needs of students, but is still financially feasible while federal grant funding is frozen. There’s no timeline for the district resuming its work with those organizations, she said.
“While there is no set deadline, we are prioritizing a careful and informed decision-making process that keeps the needs of our students at the center,” she said.
Lindsey Garner, president and CEO of Communities in Schools of Greater Tarrant County, said the organization was scheduled to offer services for more than 2,600 students on 34 campuses in Fort Worth ISD during the upcoming school year. The district is just one of 11 the organization partners with.
The funding freeze makes it more difficult for partner school districts to afford the services Communities in Schools provides, Garner said. Under the organization’s model, school districts pay a portion of the cost of providing those services, often using federal money. Communities in Schools makes up the rest of the cost through philanthropic donations, she said. Now that districts don’t have access to that federal money, the nonprofit will have to work with its funding partners and Fort Worth ISD leaders to find ways to make sure services aren’t disrupted, she said.
The mental health counseling and case management services Communities in Schools provides can be a critical lifeline for some students, Garner said. Many students who struggle academically or with attendance or behavior have some underlying challenge that’s causing those problems, she said. It’s important that there be someone on campus who can work with students and their families to figure out what challenges they’re dealing with and help develop a plan to overcome them, she said.
Trump admin withholds over $5B in education funding
Officials with the U.S. Department of Education announced June 30 that they planned to withhold $6.8 billion in funding that Congress appropriated for education grants. Two weeks later, administration officials announced they would unfreeze $1.4 billion for one program — Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers, also known as Title IV, Part B. But the rest, totaling over $5 billion, remains frozen.
Texas was in line to get $667 million, all but $9 million of which would have gone to school districts across the state. With the release of Title IV, Part B money, the state is set to receive $130.6 million from that program. But with the rest of the federal money still tied up in the funding freeze, potentially until September 2026, school districts are forced to make tough decisions about how they’ll pay for the programs that federal money was supposed to fund.
About $10 million in funding designated for Fort Worth ISD was initally frozen. During a school board meeting Tuesday, Superintendent Karen Molinar said district leaders received notification this week that $1.7 million in Title IV, Part B grant money had been released. But the remaining money remains on hold. Molinar said 88 positions in the district are funded with federal money that’s affected by the freeze.
The freeze includes the following grant programs:
Title I, Part C – Migrant Education
Title II, Part A – Supporting Effective Instruction
Title III, Part A – English Language Acquisition
Title IV, Part A – Student Support and Academic Enrichment
Molinar has made a priority of redirecting money into the classroom. But with the federal funding freeze, district leaders have to figure out how to balance that priority against other services students and their families rely on. In a statement, Fort Worth ISD officials said they plan to spend this month looking at the district’s finances to “find ways to still help our students and families while also being able to provide the educational resources our students need.”
“Part of what makes Fort Worth ISD special is the way our community rallies around our students,” district leaders said. “We understand these programs and services have a significant impact on many of our students and families. We are invested in all facets of success for our students; academically and socially.”
Northwest ISD looks for ways to absorb funding freeze
Other Fort Worth area school districts are scrambling to figure out how to manage the budget hole created by the funding freeze. Anthony Tosie, a spokesperson for the Northwest Independent School District, said about $930,000 of the district’s budget is affected, most of it designated for teacher training and services for students who are learning English.
The district hasn’t identified any positions or services it would need to cut in response to the freeze, Tosie said. But the situation creates uncertainty, he said. District leaders are looking for ways to absorb the cuts temporarily until more information is available, he said.
The news of the freeze came at the end of a challenging budget year for Northwest ISD. Earlier this year, district leaders announced plans to cut more than 100 teaching positions as a part of broader efforts to offset a $16 million budget shortfall.
Texas AFT joins lawsuit over federal school funding pause
Education leaders across the country, including some in Texas, are pushing back on the funding freeze. On Tuesday, the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers announced it was joining a lawsuit brought by a coalition of school districts, teachers organizations and parents groups that seeks to force the Trump administration to lift the freeze. The lawsuit is similar to, but separate from, another suit filed last week by 24 states, plus the District of Columbia.
In a statement, Zeph Capo, president of the Texas teachers organization, said school districts counted on the money that’s tied up in the funding freeze when they made their budgets for the upcoming school year.
“That is money that parents expect to be in their kids’ classrooms this fall,” he said. “We are tired of our public schools, educators, and students being used as political punching bags. If those in charge won’t meet us at the table, then our only option is to see them in court.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
