The Health and Human Services Department illegally withheld payments from Head Start for the first months of President Donald Trump鈥檚 term, a government watchdog reported Wednesday.

HHS payments for Head Start this year were significantly behind schedule compared with 2024. That violated the Impoundment Control Act, a law governing the president鈥檚 duty to spend congressionally appropriated funds, according to听a report听from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.

The law, sometimes called the ICA, allows the president to withhold appropriated funds in some circumstances. But the publicly available data did not show those conditions were met and HHS did not mount any defense prior to the report鈥檚 publication, according to the GAO.

鈥淏ecause that evidence indicates that HHS withheld appropriated funds from expenditure, and because the burden to justify such withholdings rests with HHS and the executive branch, we conclude that HHS violated the ICA by withholding funds,鈥� the report said.

Before the report鈥檚 publication, HHS did not provide the GAO with information requested by the watchdog or a legal analysis, according to the report, which was signed by GAO General Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez.

However, an HHS spokesperson told States Newsroom in a Wednesday email that it would respond to the GAO and disputed the report鈥檚 conclusion.

鈥淗HS did not impound Head Start funds and disputes the conclusion of the GAO report,鈥� the spokesperson wrote. 鈥淕AO should anticipate a forthcoming response from HHS to incorporate into an updated report.鈥�

How听Head Start works

Head Start is a federal grant program to fund pre-kindergarten services for low-income families. The federal government provides up to 80% of a local program鈥檚 eligible costs, the report said. As of last year, 1,600 organizations received Head Start funding for education, nutritional, health and social services.

Organizations receiving Head Start funding generally win grant approvals for five years at a time. Programs in good standing are automatically renewed, according to the report.

Mere days after Trump took office in January, dozens of Head Start grant recipients found they were unable to access funds they鈥檇 expected from HHS, according to a Jan. 28 statement from the National Head Start Association, a coalition of grantees.

GAO鈥檚 analysis showed the department disbursed about one-third less grant funding in the first three months of the Trump administration than it had over the same period in 2024. The difference amounted to $825 million less for Head Start grants over those months.

The law does allow for HHS to stop funding for grantees before the end of the five-year period under certain circumstances, such as for failing to meet performance standards or becoming under-enrolled.

In those cases, though, HHS must warn the programs of potential cuts in grants, provide a detailed plan the organization can implement to avoid grant cancellation and give the grantee a fair hearing as well as the ability to apply for refunding 鈥� all before funding can be cut off, according to the GAO report.

There is no indication HHS took any of those steps before abruptly cutting funds in January, according to the report.

鈥楾he president is not a king鈥�

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, blasted President Donald Trump and his HHS in a lengthy statement that asserted Congress鈥� power over spending decisions and admonished the administration for harming an important program for working families.

鈥淭rump has signaled he would like to eliminate Head Start鈥攂ut that鈥檚 not his choice to make,鈥� Murray said. 鈥淐ongress delivered this funding for Head Start on a bipartisan basis, and instead of trying to destroy preschool programs and breaking our laws to hurt working families, President Trump needs to ensure every penny of these funds get out in a timely, consistent way moving forward鈥攁nd he must also finally get out the rest of the investments he has been robbing the American people of.鈥�

Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, highlighted Congress鈥� role in directing federal funding, calling on Trump and White House Budget Director Russell Vought to comply with appropriations laws.

鈥淭he President is not a king, and laws are not suggestions,鈥� Merkley said in a statement. 鈥淥nce again, we鈥檙e seeing proof that this administration is in clear violation of the law under the Impoundment Control Act. The funds appropriated by Congress are not merely suggestions for Donald Trump and Russ Vought to ignore 鈥� these are funds that hardworking families rely on, and Head Start is essential to making sure the doors of opportunity are open to every child in our country.鈥�

ACLU lawsuit

The GAO report did not list any further action the agency would take but did note that litigation over the withheld funding is ongoing.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit in April in federal court in Seattle that included parents and Head Start grant recipients.

The suit described widespread confusion that Head Start organizations experienced when they could not access expected federal funding, compounded by cuts to support staff in regional offices.

No cooperation

The report detailed the lack of participation by HHS in the GAO鈥檚 investigation and tied it to a separate legal fight involving a public website.

鈥淗HS has not provided the information we requested regarding factual information and its legal views concerning the potential impoundment of appropriated funds,鈥� the report said.

Without information from the administration, the watchdog based its findings on publicly available data.

The White House Office of Management and Budget added an obstacle to that task, the watchdog said.

The office 鈥渞emoved agency apportionment data from its public websites, which is both contrary to OMB鈥檚 duty to make such information publicly available and to GAO鈥檚 statutory authority to access such information,鈥� the GAO report said.

On that question, a federal judge on Monday听ordered the Trump administration听to once again publish details about the pace at which it plans to spend money approved by Congress.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote in his ruling that Congress 鈥渉as sweeping authority鈥� to require the president to post a website detailing how it doles out taxpayer dollars throughout the year.

WASHINGTON 鈥� A measure to ensure the federal student aid form opens up annually by Oct. 1 passed the U.S. House Friday with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The  鈥� which passed 381-1 鈥� came after the U.S. Department of Education faced major backlash over the botched rollout of the 2024-25 , or FAFSA. California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren was the only lawmaker to vote against the bill. 

Though the form got a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020, users faced multiple glitches and technical errors throughout the form鈥檚 soft launch in December and past its full debut in January, prompting processing delays and gaps in submissions.

The department has worked to correct these glitches and close that gap while also fixing major issues that prevented parents without Social Security numbers from completing the form.

Adding another complication, the  it would use a phased rollout of the 2025-26 form in an attempt to address any errors that might arise before it opens up to everyone 鈥� making the application fully available two months later than usual.

鈥淪ince Oct. 1, the Department has conducted three successful beta tests of the 2025鈥�26 FAFSA form to ensure it is ready for all students and families on or before Dec. 1,鈥� U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said in a statement shared Monday with States Newsroom, while noting that the department already began its fourth testing stage this past week.

鈥淲e have a fully functioning site and a form working end-to-end that has been successfully submitted by more than 10,000 students, with dozens of schools all over the country receiving the data for student aid packages,鈥� he said.

The department is on track to launch the 2026-27 FAFSA on Oct. 1, 2025, with 鈥渁 fully functioning system,鈥� according to Kvaal. 

Codified deadline

Though the department legally has until Jan. 1 to roll out the form, it typically launches Oct. 1.

U.S. Rep. Erin Houchin, an Indiana Republican and member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in July  to standardize that deadline.

鈥淚鈥檓 especially frustrated considering the Department of Education has had three years to simplify the FAFSA as Congress has dictated,鈥� Houchin said during floor debate Friday.

She also  from the Government Accountability Office, including that nearly three-quarters of all calls to the call center went unanswered in the first five months of the 2024-25 rollout.

鈥淲e want this program to work 鈥� we want to make sure that children and families that want to send their kids to college have the availability to do that and that the FAFSA is available and workable,鈥� she added.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the House education panel, echoed his support during the floor debate, saying the measure will 鈥渉elp ensure that even more students have the information they need in a timelier manner to access Pell Grants and other vital student aid.鈥�

Scott initially opposed the effort when the committee took it up in July out of concerns that the implementation deadline could force the department to roll out an incomplete form on Oct. 1 of this year.

鈥淗owever, because we鈥檙e now considering the bill after Oct. 1, the deadline will apply next year, 2025, and that gives the department ample time to make improvements and fix any lingering issues,鈥� the Virginia Democrat said.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican,  in July.

The bill was referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where Cassidy serves as ranking member. After Republicans won a Senate majority in the Nov. 5 elections,  to chair the panel next year. 

This originally appeared on .

The found that when 鈥渞ace, gender and disability statuses overlap鈥� 鈥� a concept often known as intersectionality 鈥� students 鈥渃an experience even greater adverse consequences.鈥�

鈥淩ace, gender and disability all figure prominently when it comes to arrests, but they matter differently for different groups of students,鈥� report author Jacqueline Nowicki, the GAO鈥檚 director of education, workforce and income security, told 蜜桃影视.

The GAO鈥檚 analysis of federal student arrest data found that Black and indigenous students faced school-based arrests at rates two to three times higher than those of their white counterparts. Among demographic groups, the report found, the arrest rate was particularly stark for boys with disabilities.听

Students with disabilities are arrested at higher rates than students of the same gender who did not receive special education services, researchers found, however, Black girls without disabilities are arrested at a greater rate than white girls with disabilities. 

The GAO report adds the latest insight into the ongoing debate over whether police make schools safer or whether their presence feeds the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly for students of color and those with disabilities. After a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020, some school districts cut ties with their local police agencies in the face of student and community protests. But many of them brought cops back after students returned post-pandemic with heightened mental health and behavioral issues. 

The report, which was mandated by Congress, found that student arrests were particularly high in schools where police officers engaged in routine student discipline 鈥� something that education and law enforcement leaders say is outside the scope of how school-based police should function. 

To reach its conclusions, the federal watchdog analyzed recent, pre-pandemic data on student arrests nationally collected by the U.S. Education Department and conducted site visits at three unidentified school districts in California, Maryland and Texas. It was on the site visits that researchers 鈥済ot a flavor for what it looks like to have police in schools,鈥� Nowicki said. On paper, the officers were not supposed to participate in routine student discipline, like acting out in class, she said, but researchers found that school officials often lacked a clear understanding 鈥渙f what it means to involve police appropriately.鈥� 

鈥淭here were districts that explicitly were not supposed to have police involved in discipline but the police were telling us that teachers and administrators were calling them for discipline issues,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not necessarily a common or a clear understanding all the time about the roles and responsibilities of police in schools, even in districts that have police.鈥� 

Mo Canady, executive director of the nonprofit National Association of School Resource Officers, said that while school policing models differ in districts across the country, they鈥檙e generally trained to refrain from getting involved in student disciplinary incidents. However, he noted that there are no national rules that specify how officers are trained or selected.

鈥淭here are national best practices or recommendations, but there are no required national standards,鈥� said Canady, whose group provides training to school-based officers. 鈥淚 think this speaks more loudly to the lack of national standards than anything else.鈥� 

Research has for years called attention to longstanding racial disparities in student suspensions, expulsions and arrests. In one recent report, researchers found that officers perceived students as more threatening in schools where students of color made up the largest share of enrollment compared to officers who worked at campuses where students were predominantly white. 

Among academic researchers, officers’ role in preventing campus crime and violence is an ongoing question. Another paper found that placing school resource officers on campuses led to a marginal decline in some forms of school violence including fights, and a stark uptick in student disciplinary actions, especially among Black students and those with disabilities. 

In Chicago, the removal of police officers in some of the city鈥檚 high schools beginning in 2020 has shown promising results, according to new , which found that taking school cops out of the equation 鈥渨as significantly related to having fewer high-level discipline infractions.鈥� 

To the GAO鈥檚 Nowicki, the gap in arrest rates is unlikely explained by 鈥渢he idea that police are just responding to significant behavioral incidents more鈥� often in schools with a regular police presence compared to those without one.

鈥淚 am not convinced,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hat the answer is, 鈥榃ell, there鈥檚 just more crime in schools with police.鈥� 鈥�

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Between 2006 and 2020, 1.4% of schools with a grant from the Charter Schools Program closed, compared to 2.3% of schools without the funding. And within 12 years, schools with a grant were about half as likely to close as those without one. 

But echoing the results of on the program, the Government Accountability Office found that states awarded about $152 million in grants to 638 charter schools that closed or never opened 鈥� representing about 14% of those that received grants.听

Even so, charter school supporters welcomed the GAO鈥檚 main takeaway.

鈥淭his finding only underscores the need to increase funding for the [Charter Schools Program] so that more charter schools have access to start-up funds and planning grants,鈥� said Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. 

The report is the latest to respond to questions from policymakers about the program鈥檚 effectiveness as the Biden administration moves to implement tighter rules for grantees. Charter supporters argue the updated regulations, which seek to create more racially balanced schools and increase transparency, would limit growth. But critics say grant recipients waste taxpayer dollars when they close or never open. asked for both the GAO report and an earlier one from the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Office of the Inspector General. 

The Inspector General found that charter operators opened about half of the schools that they promised. Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, wrote in an that the report also drew attention to 鈥渟loppy record keeping and weak oversight鈥� of the program.听

The GAO focused on the sustainability of schools that opened, comparing similar schools that received grants with those that did not. 

It found that the pattern of grant-receiving schools remaining open longer was consistent regardless of grade levels and student poverty and whether the schools were urban, suburban or rural. The results also held true in the three states that received the most funding from the program 鈥� California, Florida and Texas.

California saw a more dramatic spike in schools closing after nine years if they didn鈥檛 receive a grant. Ana Tintocalis, spokeswoman for the California Charter School Association, attributed the difference to additional quality measures that grant recipients must meet to receive funding. 

Increased closure rates, she added, also likely stem from demographic shifts and the high cost of living and working in the state. 

鈥淭he biggest reasons for closures across the state tend to be difficulty securing facilities and low enrollment, which impact our urban schools the most,鈥� she said.

When GAO researchers interviewed officials in seven states, they found financial mismanagement and a lack of community support were also among the top reasons why charter schools close, whether or not they receive a federal grant.

A year ago, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers released highlighting how states have used grant funds to support school districts, mayor鈥檚 offices, nonprofits and other institutions that approve and renew charter school applications. 

Karega Rausch, president and CEO of the organization, said the GAO鈥檚 report reflects鈥渕eaningful changes鈥� in policies since then that have 鈥渓ed to increased accountability.鈥� 

In some cases, that means stopping a planned charter from opening,鈥� he said, and 鈥渃losing an existing charter school that doesn鈥檛 live up to their promises to students, communities and taxpayers.鈥�