On January 28, 2025, a U.S. District judge paused the U.S. Government’s temporary freeze on federal funding just minutes before it was set to take effect at 5 p.m. that day. The Washington, D.C. judge blocked the Trump administration’s directive for one week.

The legal challenge came from a coalition of organizations that filed a motion for a temporary restraining order. A federal memo issued on Monday, January 27th,  directed agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education, to temporarily pause financial assistance by 5 p.m. the next day.

The memo from the Office of Management and Budget also called for federal agencies to conduct a comprehensive analysis of their federal financial assistance programs to see how they may be impacted by President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding diversity, equity and inclusion, nongovernment organizations, “woke gender ideology” and other activities.

The agencies have until Feb. 10 to share their analysis of any affected programs with OMB.

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A January 27, 2025 memo issued by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) serves as a Q&A document to shed light on the impacts regarding the pause in federal funding. While this is a developing situation, the clicking on this attachment will help provide clarification that Medicaid is not affected by the January 27th directive to pause funding. In addition, at least two lawsuits have been filed regarding OMB’s directive. As a result, a federal judge has temporarily blocked OMB’s pause in funding.

On January 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) announced that it is eliminating its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a move tied to President Donald Trump’s directives to purge DEI from the federal government. The USDE said it has “removed or archived” hundreds of outward-facing documents, including guidance, reports and training materials that mention DEI. That also includes links to resources encouraging educators to incorporate DEI in their classrooms.

The USDE also put agency employees tasked with leading DEI initiatives on paid leave. 

Source, K-12 Dive

On the day of his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed several executive orders to eliminate efforts to provide protections for LGBTQ+ students and increase educational access for Hispanic, Native American, and Black students. In one executive order, Trump directed the U.S. government to only recognize two sexes — male and female — based on reproductive cells and directs federal agencies to use its definition of sex to enforce laws, including Title IX. The order also defines “female” as someone who produces “the large reproductive cell” and “male” as someone who produces “the small reproductive cell” and says that “sex” is “not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.” According to the order, federal funds, should not promote the notion that individuals can assess their own gender or that a spectrum of genders exist, and described such claims as false and labeling them “gender ideology.” At this point, it is unclear how this assessment will immediately impact schools or their LGBTQ+ students.

Also that day, the President also rescinded several Biden-era executive orders that sought to increase educational access to underrepresented students. Among their many goals, they aimed to increase federal funding access to minority-serving institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions. He also struck down  a 2024 executive order that established a White House initiative to increase educational access through Hispanic-serving institutions. 

On the following day, the Trump administration announced a directive ending the practice of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents avoiding “sensitive” areas — including elementary and secondary schools, colleges, hospitals and churches — for enforcement actions.

It is expected that legal challenges will mount against these and other actions taken by the President.

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