After federal rollback, East St. Louis schools regain some grant money — for now

Two East St. Louis schools are set to receive a limited amount of previously canceled federal community schools funding, which finances their after-school programs and various other student supports through the end of June.

What happens next remains uncertain.

Nearly $6 million of the grant funds originally promised to Illinois schools in 2024 will be divided among 32 Illinois schools. Each school will get approximately $145,000, said Susan Stanton, executive director of ACT Now, the nonprofit that distributes the federal funding to the impacted Illinois schools.

“We are relieved and grateful that the U.S. Department of Education has continued our community schools grant through June 30, 2026,” East St. Louis School District spokesperson Sydney Stigge-Kaufman said. “This funding allows us to finish the school year strong … and enables us to plan and deliver additional activities and services that had been on hold.”

The agreement was announced in a federal court hearing for a lawsuit ACT Now filed against the Department of Education in December, shortly after the federal government canceled $72 million in grants that were set to go to Illinois community schools through 2028.

The Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madi Biedermann said the grants were discontinued because they didn’t align with the Trump administration’s priorities and many of the programs they were being used for “use overt race preferences or perpetuate divisive concepts and stereotypes.”

Considering the total amount in jeopardy, ACT Now considers Thursday’s announcement a small win.

“While this deal is definitely a step in the right direction, it’s still a very limited deal … (and) there’s still extensive harm that’s being done daily,” Stanton said.

The Department of Education could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. Citing the ongoing litigation, the attorneys representing the Department of Education declined to comment.

Stigge-Kaufmann previously said community schools are “beating hearts” of the areas they serve. The whole point of community schools, and therefore associated funding, is to provide programs and resources designed to meet the unique needs of their students and families through local partnerships.

At Avant and Officer, this includes after-school programs, food and clothing essentials and extra academic interventions; all of which are buoyed by federal community schools funding.

ACT Now filed a federal lawsuit against the Department and its leadership shortly after the funds were threatened. As the suit moved through the system, ACT Now and the Department negotiated a number of short-term agreements that allowed some funding to be released. Funds were often released for days or a week, sometimes multiple weeks, Stanton said; Thursday’s development is the longest extension they’ve secured since the grant was discontinued.

With reduced funding and uncertainty about its future, some services that schools offered through these grants shuttered. This includes after-school programs and clubs, mental health services, food and household product distributions and more, Stanton said. Some community schools programming had to lay off staff.

East St. Louis employed two community school specialists with the grant, one for each school. They essentially coordinate all the programs with administration, Stigge-Kaufman said. When the news broke in December that there may not be funding to support the positions, one specialist willingly left. The district has not filled the position; with the reduced allotments, they couldn’t support two full-time specialists. Their work has been split among other staff members, adding to their normal responsibilities.

While the district has managed to continue serving the same number of students at its Avant and Officer after-school programs, the reduced funding has caused it to limit hours and reduce staffing, Stigge-Kauffman said.

To keep its more essential programming — the ones that meet families’ basic needs like the food pantries and clothing closets — other community schools projects have been put on hold, Stigge-Kaufman said.

For example, Avant was set to expand its playground for the wide range of grade levels that use it. All progress on that front stopped in December. Spring and summer activities — like an anticipated overnight camp Officer previously offered — didn’t return this year.

“It limited the potential for us to be able to provide services and activities as well as additional academic enrichment and supports,” Stigge-Kaufman said.

Stigge-Kaufman said the newly regained funding will allow the district to assess which programs it can bring back that it paused, but did not provide specifics of what these activities and services may be.

She said the district will continue to partner with ACT Now to advocate for the entirety of the previously promised funding to be restored. If this does not happen, the district will continue its “aggressive search” for other funding streams to keep its programming going, she said.

“We hope the U.S. Department of Education recognizes that this small grant investment leverages other resources to magnify supports for students and families, and we urge them to fully restore the grant’s original funding and timeline,” Stigge-Kaufman said.