How the federal shutdown will impact K-12, higher education

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The federal government shutdown that began Wednesday is expected to cause limited immediate disruption for Alabama schools and colleges, though state officials say furloughs and layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education could delay responses to questions and services.

Alabama education officials said the shutdown should have no immediate impact on the flow of funding to schools, but furloughs and layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education could make it harder for agencies to get timely answers.

During the shutdown, the department will cease new grantmaking activity and pause its advisory and regulatory role to schools and grant recipients.

K-12 funding

Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey said he received correspondence Tuesday confirming that school systems should not see an immediate funding disruption.

“The current plan, based on correspondence we received, is that our current funds will continue to flow as normal,” Mackey wrote in a text to Alabama Daily News.

Federal money, which includes funding for special education and schools with large numbers of students in poverty, accounted for 19% of all PK-12 funding to Alabama public schools in fiscal year 2024, with state and local governments supplying the remainder. In 61 of the state’s 151 districts, including charter schools, federal funding makes up more than 20% of budgets.

Not all federal education money arrives ahead of the school year, however. One example is Impact Aid, a program that bolsters school budgets in areas where federal land management or other activities, such as military installations, reduce the amount of taxable land to generate revenue for the district. These schools likely will see disruptions in payments.

In Alabama, 14 districts received $1.9 million in Impact Aid during the 2025 fiscal year.

Alabama’s 171 Head Start programs are not expected to be impacted, according to a statement from the National Head Start Association.

Child Nutrition Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees school meals, said it has enough funding to reimburse schools for meals served in September and October. The department’s shutdown plan shows that 92% of its Food Nutrition Service employees – the division that administers school meals – will be furloughed.

Funding for the Child Nutrition Program comes from direct Treasury transfers, and USDA said contingency funds could be tapped if needed. The department also said funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program should continue to flow for now.

Civil rights investigations

About 87% of its 2,400-person workforce will be furloughed, according to a department contingency plan.

Under the shutdown, the department will stop its investigations into schools and universities over alleged civil rights violations. Since mass layoffs in March, the office has operated under a significantly reduced footprint. The department’s civil rights branch lost about half of its staff.

The cuts raised questions about whether the office would be able to shrink a backlog of complaints from students who allege they have experienced discrimination on the basis of race, sex or disability status.

While the public database has not been updated since Jan. 14, court filings show that between Mar. 11 and Sept. 8, the Office for Civil Rights:

• Received 8,325 complaints,
• Opened 543 for investigation,
• Opened 32 “directed investigations”
• Dismissed 5,620 complaints,
• Resolved 125 complaints after concluding insufficient evidence existed,
• Resolved 488 complaints with voluntary agreements, OCR-mediated settlements or technical assistance from OCR

It is unclear if any of the resolutions were related to the 12,079 open investigations listed in the public database prior to Jan. 14. However, department data on resolutions shows fewer cases being closed.

During the shutdown, work on the pending cases will stop.

Higher education: Student loans, FAFSA and aid

Officials with the Alabama Community College System and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education did not respond to requests for comment, but the U.S. Department of Education’s plan indicated that federal student aid to colleges should continue to be disbursed as normal.

This is also the time of year students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The Education Department said it will continue processing applications, which colleges use to assemble aid packages for incoming students.

Nationwide, about 9.9 million students receive some form of federal student aid, spread across some 5,400 colleges, according to the department. Within the Office of Federal Student Aid, the department plans to furlough 632 of the 747 employees during the shutdown, although it didn’t say which ones. For most student loan issues, borrowers work with loan servicers hired by the department rather than directly with FSA staff.

In Alabama, more than $590 million in Pell Grant funding was disbursed to 108,000 students during the 2024-25 academic year. Students also borrowed just under $1.3 billion in federal loans during the same period.

U.S. Department of Education’s future

Since he took office, President Donald Trump has called for the dismantling of the Education Department, saying it has been overrun by liberal thinking. Agency leaders have been making plans to parcel out its operations to other departments, and in July the Supreme Court upheld mass layoffs that halved the department’s staff.

In a shutdown, the Republican administration has suggested federal agencies could see more positions eliminated entirely.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.