At midnight during the overnight hours, following the lack of any budget agreement, the federal government shut down. Lawmakers are currently in disagreement over both a full federal budget, as well as a shorter-term budget extender (commonly referred to as a “continuing resolution”). Until agreement is reached on at least one of those fronts, the federal government will continue under a shutdown.
There is no clear indication as to how long this shutdown will last. Since 1980, there have been 10 federal government shutdowns which resulted in the furlough of federal employees. The longest of those was the most recent – when the federal government was shutdown for 35 days, during the first Trump administration in 2018-19.
For most school districts in New York, the immediate impact should be extremely limited. Main funding streams, including Title I and IDEA, should continue to flow. Reports suggested that school meals funding will continue for the time being. However, some targeted funding streams such as Impact Aid, will likely stop. In addition, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) noted that the U.S. Department of Education is likely to “experience disruptions…compounded by the administration’s ongoing efforts to wind down the department and reduce its workforce. With significantly few staff in place, even routine operations are more vulnerable to interruption.” While the short-term impact to New York’s school districts should be minimal, the risk for financial disruption increases the longer the shutdown goes on.
Federal Budget Advocacy
NYSSBA continues to support the U.S. Senate’s federal budget approach, which would generally hold most federal education funding flat. In contrast, the House of Representatives’ budget would make harmful, and in some cases drastic, cuts to federal education funding, to the tune of more than $5 billion. We encourage you to make your voices heard by telling your Congressional representative(s) that you support the preservation of federal support for schools, through the Senate’s budget proposal. You can send a message through NSBA’s Call to Action tool here.