After-school programs could see a late start in Tucson schools due to delays in federal funding.
Arizona schools are expecting to receive a previously frozen sum of about $130 million this week after the Trump administration announced Friday it would unfreeze billions in federal dollars. The funds were previously under review to ensure they aligned with President Donald Trump’s priorities, the Associated Press reported.
Tucson Unified School District was expecting to receive $6 million on July 1; however, the US Department of Education announced the day before that it would be holding onto the funds. They are expected to be released this week.
"Once ADE (Arizona Department of Education) gives us the go-ahead, we can immediately access those dollars, retroactive to July 1," Chief Financial Officer Ricardo Hernandez said in an email statement. "For afterschool programs, we're working diligently to begin as close to September 2 as possible, which was our original projected start date for 21st Century programs."
Of the millions in federal dollars, Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said $2 million goes toward student programming through the 21st Century afterschool program.
The remaining $4 million goes toward professional development resources for teachers, English as a Second Language and English Language Development courses for students, which have not been affected. It also covers student support services, including social work, student behavioral intervention and social emotional learning programming.
No staffing changes were made due to the pause in funds, said TUSD Director of Communications Karla Escamilla.
Sunnyside Unified School District, which starts Thursday, July 31, could see a three-week delay in after-school programs as hiring wasn't an option until the funds became available, said Superintendent Jose Gastelum.
"These title funds were about $2.6 million dollars," Gastelum said. "It caused us a lot of anxiety and it caused us to think outside the box on how we were going to serve our families."
He said the delay not only hurts students who learn better with these programs, but it also hurts parents who rely on the programs while at work.
"We couldn't recruit for positions and we couldn't put out information to parents," he said. "We're anticipating the funds that were frozen will be the same allocations, but there will be additional guidance. We've yet to be informed on what that will be."
