Kentucky school districts lose $34 million due to U.S. Department of Education change
FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) - Last Friday, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent an email to state education agencies, announcing that the U.S. Department of Education was changing the time period to liquidate COVID relief funds.
In the letter, Secretary McMahon announced that the new end date to the liquidation period would be March 28, the day the letter was sent.
Kentucky Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Robbie Fletcher says the USED had previously approved a request from the KDE to liquidate COVID relief funds through March 28, 2026.
In an email sent to Kentucky superintendents on Monday, Dr. Fletcher explained the impacts of this change.
“In February, USED changed how the COVID relief funds were requested by states and processed by USED. Due to this change in process, KDE has not received COVID grant funding the next business day as was previously the case,” Dr. Fletcher wrote. “To date, KDE has been paying district grant recipients and asking the federal government to reimburse us. At this point in time, we have asked to be reimbursed for nearly $5 million, with no response from USED.”
Dr. Fletcher says the changes by the USED will “harm a variety of our schools and districts across the state even more.”
“It is certainly going to rock the foundation of the state of Kentucky and our school districts,” said the CEO of the Kentucky Educational Development Corporation, Nancy Hutchinson.
Dr. Fletcher explains that the KDE and Kentucky school districts have already committed or spent the funds as they were promised a liquidation period ending in March 2026.
According to Dr. Fletcher’s email, 19 districts have asked for extended time to spend their COVID relief dollars fully, which totaled $84.1 million. He says there are 13 districts with $34 million remaining that should be accessible to spend. This money was primarily going to be used for construction projects and bus purchases.
“It was already a promise. It was already a contract from the US Department of Education. So they didn’t do anything wrong,” said Hutchinson.
The Kentucky Department of Education provided WKYT with the following breakdown of remaining COVID-19 relief funds
| District | Allocation | Total Paid | Balance | Liquidation Approved Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boone County | 16,520,671 | 15,249,922.15 | 1,270,748.85 | 3,199,572.10 |
| Carter County | 16,355,554 | 12,190,963.19 | 4,164,590.81 | 12,011,109.06 |
| Caverna Independent | 5,044,304 | 4,774,903 | 269,401 | 1,205,401 |
| Christian County | 31,953,616 | 23,970,288.45 | 7,983,327.55 | 18,310,580.47 |
| Clinton County | 7,524,292 | 6,095,554.14 | 1,428,737.86 | 1,978,117 |
| Covington Independent | 19,852,568 | 19,285,210.42 | 567,357.58 | 3,150,504.33 |
| Hopkins County | 15,060,812 | 15,060,812 | 0 | 4,083,974.72 |
| Knott County | 11,518,007 | 11,518,007 | 0 | 1,165,312.63 |
| Knox County | 26,045,790 | 25,638,404.30 | 407,385.70 | 8,337,132.35 |
| Laurel County | 29,634,724 | 19,634,724 | 10,000,000 | 10,000,000 |
| Lee County | 5,289,872 | 5,289,872 | 0 | 310,104 |
| Letcher County | 11,907,753 | 8,906,397 | 3,001,356 | 2,752,612 |
| McCreary County | 13,891,206 | 13,881,557.36 | 9,648.64 | 3,173,676.72 |
| Owsley County | 4,811,757 | 4,425,660 | 386,097 | 2,058,022.18 |
| Perry County | 15,962,740 | 14,695,441.91 | 1,267,298.09 | 2,239,562.87 |
| Pike County | 25,145,298 | 21,780,122.72 | 3,365,175.28 | 9,554,273.18 |
| Trigg County | 5,308,443 | 4,999,142 | 309,301 | 368,670 |
| Washington County | 3,973,815 | 3,973,815 | 0 | 199,303 |
“Because USED required that grant funds subject to the extended liquidation deadline be obligated before Sept. 30, 2024, USED’s action to shorten the liquidation period by a full year leaves our districts and KDE in a difficult position,” Dr. Fletcher wrote.
Dr. Fletcher outlined several impacts at the state level as well. He says $4.3 million had been approved by USED to provide “crucial KY K-12 EdTech services up to March 2026 for all of the Commonwealth’s public school students, teachers and staff in every K-12 school, school district office and KDE.”
He says most of this funding was to complete a cyber defense construction project, which was set to be fully in place next year. Dr. Fletcher says COVID resulted in an increased number of cyberattack attempts on Kentucky’s schools.
Nearly $900,000 of the $4.3 million was going to pay for the online registration service for Kentucky’s K-12 students and their parents. Additionally, Dr. Fletcher says more than $100,000 was to pay for e-Transcripts services “to help with a faster, better, and smoother transition from high school to post-secondary after their COVID years in high school.”
Dr. Fletcher says the fourth cohort of the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) professional learning is also at risk.
“More than 6,000 educators have participated in LETRS training, an evidence-based, comprehensive no-cost opportunity open to all K-5 public school educators,” Dr. Fletcher wrote. “Through this investment in LETRS, teachers gain essential knowledge to master the fundamentals of literacy instruction required to transform student learning and create a more vibrant experience for each and every young reader.”
Additionally, Dr. Fletcher says Kentucky has used COVID funding to implement programs through summer, before- and after-school initiatives to tackle learning loss and support the needs of low-income students, students with disabilities, English learners, migrant students, those experiencing homelessness and children in foster care in those schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement in the fall of 2022.
Dr. Fletcher says the KDE will request that Secretary McMahon reconsider her letter and reinstate the March 2026 deadline previously granted to the state. He’s also asking superintendents and stakeholders to contact federal legislators about the change.
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