Maryland’s attorney general joined 15 other states and the governor of Pennsylvania in a lawsuit seeking to restore pandemic-era funding to schools after the Trump administration cut off access to those grants last month.

Despite previously saying states could access the funds through March 2026, the Department of Education on March 28 “notified states that it was unilaterally ending access to hundreds of millions of dollars in grants” from government programs meant to help schools and students recover from the effects of the pandemic, a news release from the Office of the Attorney General said Thursday.

The sudden loss of funding created large budgetary gaps for schools and state education departments nationwide, the release said.

Maryland received $2.8 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) and $12 million in Homeless Children and Youth (HCY) funds, the lawsuit says.

“The Trump Administration’s decision to cut this funding has thrown Maryland schools into turmoil and uncertainty and threatens valuable programs that help homeless and low-income students recover from the painful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said in the release.

Baltimore City Public Schools was forced to cancel tutoring and after-school programs last week due to the loss of $48 million in pandemic relief funding.

The lawsuit specifically cites City Schools’ hardship, pointing to the district’s need to cut other projects and programs to cover the budget gap. Despite its request for extended time to use the grants, most of the COVID-era funding has already been spent by BCPS, according to the lawsuit.

The suit asks the court to vacate and declare unlawful the letter the Department of Education sent rescinding funds from school systems and to keep the department from enforcing it.

“This is a breathtakingly heartless action that threatens to change children’s futures for the worse, and our Office will not stand for it,” Brown said in the release.

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