Judge bars Trump administration from denying $1 billion in COVID-related school aid

NEW YORK – A federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday barred the Trump administration from withholding more than $1 billion in aid earmarked to help students struggling to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The judge, Edgardo Ramos of U.S. District Court, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Education Department from rescinding the aid, an unspent slice of $190 billion in pandemic-related school funding approved by the Biden administration.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by 16 attorneys general and Pennsylvania’s governor. The plaintiffs seek to preserve access to the unspent money, which, among other things, was intended to support poor and homeless students in elementary and high schools who lagged academically because of the pandemic.

Many states had been given through March 2026 to use their remaining funds. But Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said in March that the unused money would not be released. States had “ample time” to spend it, and extending the deadline was not in line with the administration’s priorities, she said.

In suing, the plaintiffs, all Democrats, said losing the aid would harm students. For New York, the amount in question is $134 million. Maryland has the most at stake, $246 million.

Also involved in the suit are Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, D.C.

In a statement, Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, said the Trump administration’s decision to deny the aid had “put some of our most vulnerable children at risk of falling behind.” She called the injunction a “major win for our students and teachers.”

Requests for comment sent to the Education Department and the Justice Department, which is representing the administration in the suit, were not answered.

Ramos ordered that the preliminary injunction remain in place while the litigation continues.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.