The South Dakota district has already frozen new classified hires, slashed travel and cut overall spending. But without an expected $18 million in federal Impact Aid funding, she warns, “I have no viable path forward to maintain school operations.” Unwilling to furlough or lay off essential staff — a move that would simultaneously derail educational continuity and destabilize a community where the school system is a key employer — the district is attempting to secure a loan to bridge the gap until Impact Aid arrives.

In upstate New York near the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum, Indian River Central School District Superintendent Troy Decker is dealing with similar problems. The “withholding of Impact Aid, together with military and civilian pay reductions, furloughs and outright job losses has created a noticeable anxiety in our community,” he says. All that, combined with uncertainty around state and federal education budgets, could lead to serious cuts in next year’s programs and increased class sizes.

The districts are among about 1,100 nationwide, serving 8 million students, that rely on Impact Aid to offset the lost local revenue and increased costs associated with nontaxable federal land, such as military installations; Indian Trust, Treaty, and Alaska Native lands; national parks; and other federal sites. The initial payments typically go out in October, after the start of the federal fiscal year. But the shutdown has stalled all payments and closed the office supporting these districts.

The National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS) recently surveyed its members on the effects of the federal government shutdown, now in its fifth week. The response is clear: The situation is urgent, with districts across the country scrambling to meet payroll, maintain programs, and keep schools open.

Unlike most districts, these schools cannot rely on local property taxes for funding. For some, Impact Aid makes up more than half of the budget, covering teacher salaries, special education services, utilities and essential classroom programs.

Delays in federal payments can force these districts — many serving Native, military-connected, and rural students already facing inequities — to make difficult decisions. Across the country, districts are drawing on reserves, implementing spending and hiring freezes, and putting infrastructure projects on hold. 

A Wyoming district has eliminated tutoring services, while one in Wisconsin is considering cuts to after-school programming and an Oklahoma district warns that paraprofessionals will be the first to go if payments do not arrive soon. Lonnie Morin, district clerk at Arlee Joint School District in Montana, said her district has stopped all discretionary spending — including supplies, maintenance and repairs — and “anything else that is not absolutely necessary to run the school.”

Making matters worse, most staff members in the U.S. Department of Education’s Impact Aid Program Office have received reduction-in-force notices. These analysts manage payments and provide technical guidance. While the RIF is currently blocked by court order, if it moves forward, their absence could further delay funding once the shutdown ends.

Marking its 75^th anniversary this year, Impact Aid is the nation’s oldest K-12 federal education program and has earned strong bipartisan support. It is a cornerstone of the federal government’s responsibility to the communities where it holds land.

 As Jerrod Wheeler, Superintendent of Knob Noster Public Schools in Missouri says, “Impact Aid absolutely must be protected for the sake of our military connected students and for the sake of military readiness and retention.” Bryce Anderson, Superintendent of Page Unified School District in Arizona adds, “My strongest desire is that political division does not negatively impact communities like ours, [reliant on] the federal government’s promise to pay its fair share for untaxed treaty land.”

Every day of delay forces districts to make impossible choices: cutting programs, laying off staff and leaving children without the resources they need. The federal government must act now to reinstate Impact Aid payments and staff, honoring its promise to support the districts that serve our nation’s military, tribal, and federal lands — and the students whose futures depend on it.

Talk of government shutdowns has become common in Washington, but Congress is usually able to avoid them by passing short-term funding bills to keep money flowing.

Not this time.

The federal government ceased operating at midnight Wednesday morning, adding more uncertainty into the nation’s education system after eight months of cancelled grants, funding freezes and the Trump administration’s moves to take back money Congress already approved.

For most schools, disruptions would be minimal in the short term. The U.S. Department of Education has released a saying that Title I funds for low-income schools and special education funding, expected on Wednesday, would be available as expected. But districts that rely on , such as those near military installations or national parks, could face cash flow problems. Nationally, nearly 1,100 districts, responsible for about eight million students, are eligible for those funds.

“In some cases, they need this funding for basic services such as keeping the buildings open, the lights on and the buses running,” said Tara Thomas, government affairs manager at AASA, the School Superintendents Association. 

A shutdown that drags on for a few weeks or more could trigger additional funding problems for Head Start and school nutrition programs. 

Congress hasn’t completed its budget process on time since 1996, meaning that it on temporary funding measures to keep the government operating. In March, President Donald Trump signed that kept funding at 2024 levels. But that expired at midnight and lawmakers were unable to pass another continuation. The House passed a short-term funding bill that would have given members until Nov. 21 to finalize fiscal year 2026 budgets for all federal agencies. But Democrats are pushing for to offset the cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” They also want to extend tax cuts that lower the cost of insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act. Leaders of the two chambers met with the president, but made no progress. 

“If it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down,” Monday.

Districts and programs serving young children and families have based their expectations of this shutdown on “past precedent,” noted Melissa Boteach, chief policy officer at Zero to Three, a nonprofit advocacy organization focusing on infants and toddlers. But this administration is determined to make the federal government smaller. Trump has already signed one rescission package and wants to for teacher quality efforts toward its civics initiative centered on  the nation’s 250th birthday. 

“We are not in times that have preceded us” Boteach said.

One difference is that the administration, which blames Democrats for the shutdown, could seize on the pause in operations to further its goal of downsizing the government. 

“A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” from the Oval Office Tuesday. “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want.”

On Sept. 24, the Office of Management and Budget agencies to consider additional mass layoffs of employees. Federal employee unions have already filed a lawsuit over the plan.

“Only time will tell,” if McMahon or any other agency head acts on that suggestion, said Rachel Snyderman, managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank. ”But this is certainly …new information this year.”

Here are some of the ways a shutdown could impact schools and families:

Head Start

Six grantees serving roughly 6,500 children are expecting a new round of funding Wednesday, according to Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association. So far, none plan to close right away, but that could change if the shutdown lasts more than a few weeks. Beginning Nov. 1, additional grantees could be in the same position.

If programs don’t close, or if the shutdown is resolved quickly, even talk of disruption can mean children miss out on learning, Boteach added. In January, for example, the administration said Head Start was exempt from a . But over 50 programs serving more than 21,000 children were still locked out of payment systems and some had to close temporarily.

“There were still parents who were confused as to whether or not they could bring their kids and centers who were confused about whether or not they could pay employees,” she said. “There’s what technically happens, and then there’s fear, confusion and chaos.” 

Many low-income families who qualify for Head Start or Early Head Start also receive nutrition assistance through the program. 

“We like to think program by program, but really it’s about the human being at the center of all of it,” Boteach said.

The National Association of Counties that states may have to “rely on their own funding streams” to make sure families receive WIC benefits.

School Meals and SNAP

School nutrition programs rely on monthly reimbursements from the federal government to pay staff and purchase food and other supplies, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, which represents district programs.

In its , the Department of Agriculture said it has enough funds on hand to pay schools back for September and October meals. The agency will also keep a “limited number” of staff on hand to oversee operations. 

Families who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, should also receive benefits as usual and should not be affected if the shutdown lasts no more than a week. 

The last shutdown, which also occurred when Trump was in office, lasted 35 days over the 2018 Christmas holidays into late January. 

Education Department

In a shutdown, the majority of federal employees stop working. While some essential staff will remain available at the Education Department, civil rights investigations would be put on hold. A shutdown also halts the department’s work on any regulations or guidance being prepared, and states and districts won’t be able to reach anyone if they have questions about grants or other programs.

Work currently in progress includes gathering feedback on of the Institute for Education Sciences. Christy Wolfe, director of K-12 policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, noted that just last week, the department awarded $500 million through its Charter School Program. 

“Schools that were planning on opening with those funds on a certain timeline,” she said, “may have to be delayed.”