Despite being seen by some as additional red tape, starting November 1, 2026, all U.S. Department of Education (USDE) grant recipients will be required to have written justification for drawing down pre-approved funding. ,

According to a September 28, 2026 agency memo. an additional step has been added to add accountability and transparency for spending taxpayer funds. The directive comes from President Donald Trump’s February 2025 executive order for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Cost Efficiency Initiative, also known as “defend the spend.”

As per the memo, grant recipients will be required to provide “clear, detailed justifications for each payment request.” Each request must include the program name, expense categories and amounts, and the start and end dates for expenses. The written justifications can be no longer than 255 characters and clear without additional narrative. The directive applies to all Education Department grant recipients, including those with programs for early childhood education, K-12, higher education and adult education.

Some education organizations, including the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDE), are expressing concern that the process could cause delays in moving federal resources to schools, school districts, and states. Presently, federal education funds are drawn down through state agencies, but the new justification requirements would create additional administrative work for both states and school districts since another layer of pre-approval paperwork increases administrative burden and redirect limited administrative capacity away from teaching, learning, and student services.

On September 30, 2026, NASDE released a statement the new requirement will “impact every student in every school,” especially students with disabilities. In fact, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act includes both formula and discretionary grant funds that students with disabilities depend on to receive timely services.

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According to guidance issued jointly on September 25, 2026 by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), K-12 schools can better prepare for and protect themselves from swatting incidents by developing procedures and training to identify and respond to false threats. Swatting is identified as a “crisis” that causes significant disruption and trauma to school communities. Swatting also costs taxpayers millions of dollars in personnel and equipment, lost classroom time, and property damage.

The guidance recommends several steps that schools and colleges can take, including training their staff and educating their communities on typical characteristics of a swatting event so they can detect false threats sooner.

According to both agencies, all threats should be treated as credible when they are received.

To view the guidance document, click here.

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According to a September 23, 2026 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, federal calculations for measuring student chronic absenteeism rates are unreliable and improbable. Specifically, the GAO took issue with how the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) counts enrolled students, which is based on a single day count on October 1 even though students identified as chronically absent for federal reporting requirements are counted over an entire school year.

Under the Trump administration, the USDE has cut staff by over 85% at its Institute of Education Sciences — the office responsible for EDFacts data collection. EDFacts is the USDE’s data submission and storage hub. The USDE’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (OESE) workforce has been reduced by 43%. OESE “serves as data steward for the chronic absenteeism data collection,” the report said.

To receive federal funding, states must report on chronic absenteeism rates and many other activities. As of the 2025-26 school year, there were 36 states that include chronic absenteeism as an indicator in their statewide accountability systems. Some states, the report said, also independently set attendance goals.

At least 25% of students nationally have been chronically absent in recent years. Chronic absenteeism is when a student misses 10% or more school days over the course of a school year for any reason.

In addition to improving chronic absenteeism calculations, GAO recommends the USDE restart comprehensive monitoring to ensure states are meeting federal fiscal and program requirements. However, the USDE disagreed with this recommendation, saying that while it paused comprehensive monitoring in 2026, it is conducting targeted monitoring activities and will reveal a monitoring plan for next year.

Click here to access the GAO report.

Source: K-12 Dive