Adams 12 Five Star Schools is facing the potential loss of nearly $3 million in federal education funding after the U.S. Department of Education announced a freeze on key grants intended to support the 2025–26 school year.
Superintendent Chris Gdowski said the district is working to protect critical programs and vulnerable students, at least for the coming school year, as the Trump administration’s decision to halt $71 million in federal education grants to Colorado ripples across the state.
“We had a good, solid plan A in place to deal with these kinds of potentialities that should allow us to manage for this next year,” Gdowski said. “But it just makes the following year more difficult, because those funds are spent, and you might be without those funds for a lot more years down the road.”
Where the cuts hit
According to Gdowski, the federal freeze affects four major funding streams for Adams 12, totaling just shy of $3 million. The district had planned to use these dollars for teacher training, support for English learners, academic enrichment and after-school programs serving hundreds of low-income students.
The largest chunk, $1.15 million, was earmarked for educator professional development, specifically to support a new middle school literacy curriculum.
Another $511,000 was allocated for services to support the district’s English language learners, who make up 16–18% of Adams 12’s 34,000 students.
“Supporting them is an important legal requirement,” Gdowski said, emphasizing that many students need help developing English reading, writing and speaking skills because it’s not the primary language spoken at home.
Title IV funds, approximately $463,000, were allocated for technology, gifted and talented programs and STEM learning resources to help close academic gaps and accelerate the progress of advanced students.
Perhaps most visibly, $852,000 in 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding is now in limbo. That money supports after-school and summer enrichment for roughly 800 students at the district’s six Title I schools.
Gdowski explained that these are programs that do not just provide academic help but also help pay for support for robotics, sports and healthy snacks for children who otherwise couldn’t afford them.
“There’s lots of work that we have planned for this coming year that’ll be essential to continue, even if these funds don’t make their way to us,” Gdowski explained. “We believe that we need to move forward with these initiatives, regardless of the funding uncertainty.”
Short-term planning, long-term uncertainty
While the freeze does not currently affect Title I funding for high-poverty schools or funding for special education, the loss of these other federal streams could have a ripple effect throughout the district.
“We did worry that there might be a reduction in some federal funds,” Gdowski said. “We had a fairly high level of confidence that Title I and IDEA funds (IDEA stands for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) would not be reduced. And so we set aside some money as part of the budget plan that if these things were reduced, we could sustain the programs at least for the 25–26 school year.”
That means families and staff will not see disruptions this year.
“We’re going to be able to deliver to our families what we committed to them to do in the spring,” he said. “And we’re going to be able to do that with the staff that we hired and not make layoffs.”
But if the federal government does not release the funds or cuts them again next year, the programs may not be sustainable.
“If the government withholds these funds for the entire school year, and cuts them for the 26–27 school year, it will place further strain on our already limited resources,” Gdowski said.
Other vulnerabilities: Medicaid and the state budget
Gdowski warned that Medicaid reimbursements could also be in jeopardy. Adams 12 receives between $6 and $8 million in Medicaid funding, which helps pay for more than 80 employees who serve students with disabilities.
“We’re not quite sure where we’re going to land with Medicaid,” he said. “I’ve had others say the Medicaid funding that the bill (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) affects is only for adult Medicaid services, and they don’t feel like it will necessarily reduce funding for students and for children in our care.”
Gdowski also flagged another issue the district is watching closely.
A special legislative session could take place in August to address state-level revenue concerns.
“There may be some implications from the big, beautiful bill… that may reduce some of the state revenues,” he said. “It may also have impacts for Medicaid and some of their obligations.”
Advocacy and response
Adams 12 is not a party to any lawsuits over the freeze.
Still, Gdowski said the district is actively lobbying Colorado’s congressional delegation, including Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Representatives Brittany Pettersen and Gabe Evans, to push the Department of Education for a quick resolution.
“We feel like using political channels…is the fastest and best way,” Gdowski said, noting that legal battles could drag on for years.
So far, the district hasn’t fielded a flood of questions from parents, which Gdowski noted is likely a result of the timing, as many families are focused on summer holidays rather than the upcoming school year.
Adams 12 plans to communicate first with staff in affected programs, assuring them that jobs and services are secure for now, before reaching out to families as the start of school approaches.