COLORADO SPRINGS – The U.S. Department of Education released the remaining funds for Title II, III and IV programming July 25 to Poudre School District and others throughout the country, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced.
The funding for those programs, as well as Titles I-C and IV-B, had been frozen by the department June 30 — the day before the money was scheduled to be distributed — pending a review, the federal Department of Education said at the time.
That review, McMahon said during an appearance at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting at The Broadmoor, has been completed.
“We’re satisfied, and now the funds are going to be going out,” McMahon said.
Poudre School District’s share of the newly unfrozen funds is expected to be more than $1.1 million, based on the 2024-25 allocations, according to figures shared with the Coloradoan by the Colorado Department of Education. Funding totals for Colorado school districts were expected to be similar for 2025-26 to what they were in 2024-25, state Education Commissioner Susana Cordova told superintendents in an email.
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Thompson School District’s share of funding for those programs in 2024-25 was $645,457, and Weld RE-4’s share was $190,796.
Statewide, the unfrozen funding totaled more than $66.6 million last year, according to a breakdown by program in Cordova’s email.
“We’re very pleased that you were able to announce earlier today that those funds have become unfrozen and will be distributed,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said at the start of a panel discussion he led with McMahon at The Broadmoor.
Title IV-B funds for before- and after-school programming that were part of the same review process had been released July 18. PSD’s Title IV-B funding for 21st Century Learning Centers in 2024-25 had been $371,282.
Polis, who is completing his term as president of the National Governors Association, led an effort with 17 other democratic governors July 18 to sign a letter to McMahon demanding the remaining frozen funds for 2025-26, which had been authorized by Congress in March, be released. Colorado had joined a multistate lawsuit demanding the release of those funds July 14.
The 2025-26 fiscal year for Colorado school districts began July 1.
Poudre School District received $652,561 under Title II for supporting effective instruction in 2024-25. The district’s share of Title III English-Language Learner funding was $149,107, additional Title III funding was $13,840 and Title IV-A funding to improve school conditions for learning and technology was $291,689. State records show that PSD was also expected to receive federal Project Aware II funding for 2025-26 that totaled $390,000 the previous year. It was not clear July 25 whether those funds had been released.
PSD, Thompson and Weld RE-4 school districts did not receive any Title I-C funds for migrant education in 2024-25. That money, totaling $7,189,738 statewide in 2024-25, was also released July 25, Cordova said.
“All the withheld education funding from the Trump Administration has been returned to our classrooms, where it should have been this whole time,” Polis said in a news release. “While I am thrilled this funding has been returned to our students, this uncertainty created significant chaos for families and schools with the school year only weeks away.”
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell, threads.net/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: PSD to get about $1.1M in additional federal funds that were frozen