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Press Release:

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong Sues Trump Admin­is­tra­tion Over Unlaw­ful Con­di­tions on Fund­ing for Schools

Preceding Event:

On April 3, 2025, the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion noti­fied states and local­i­ties that in order to con­tin­ue receiv­ing fed­er­al fund­ing, they must com­ply with new poli­cies from Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion. These poli­cies are based off of an inter­pre­ta­tion of Title VI of the Civ­il Rights Act of 1964 with respect to diver­si­ty, equi­ty and inclu­sion efforts. This noti­fi­ca­tion request­ed sig­na­ture acknowl­edg­ing hav­ing received it, but Con­necti­cut and its Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion opt­ed not to sign the let­ter, instead respond­ing with its own let­ter stat­ing that they “are con­tin­u­ing to align its prin­ci­ples and pro­grams with the require­ments and pur­pose of Title VI.”

General Overview:

As part of a coali­tion of 19 oth­er attor­neys gen­er­al, Con­necti­cut Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Tong “filed a law­suit chal­leng­ing the U.S. Depart­ment of Education’s threat to with­hold fed­er­al fund­ing from state and local agen­cies that refuse to aban­don law­ful pro­grams and poli­cies that pro­mote equal access to edu­ca­tion in K‑12 class­rooms across the nation,” accord­ing to the press release.

“Con­necti­cut, like many oth­er states, refused to cer­ti­fy its com­pli­ance with these new require­ments, explain­ing that there is no law­ful or prac­ti­cal way to do so giv­en the Department’s vague, con­tra­dic­to­ry, and unsup­port­ed inter­pre­ta­tion of Title VI.

Connecticut Nexus:

Accord­ing to the press release, “The U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion pro­vides Con­necti­cut with near­ly $400 mil­lion in con­gres­sion­al­ly man­dat­ed finan­cial sup­port each year for a wide vari­ety of needs and ser­vices relat­ed to chil­dren and edu­ca­tion. This fund­ing includes finan­cial sup­port to ensure that stu­dents from low-income fam­i­lies have the same access to high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion as their peers, pro­vide spe­cial edu­ca­tion ser­vices, recruit and train high­ly skilled and ded­i­cat­ed teach­ers, fund pro­gram­ming for non-native speak­ers to learn Eng­lish, and pro­vide sup­port to vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren in fos­ter care and with­out hous­ing.

As a con­di­tion of receiv­ing these funds, state and local edu­ca­tion agen­cies pro­vide writ­ten assur­ances they will com­ply with Title VI of the Civ­il Rights Act of 1964, which pro­hibits dis­crim­i­na­tion based on race, col­or or nation­al ori­gin, and Con­necti­cut has con­sis­tent­ly and reg­u­lar­ly cer­ti­fied its com­pli­ance with Title VI and its imple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions.”

Date of filing:

April 23, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-11116

Case title:

State of New York et al v. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion et al

Plaintiffs:

• STATE OF NEW YORK;
• STATE OF ILLINOIS;
• COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS;
• STATE OF CALIFORNIA;
• STATE OF MINNESOTA STATE OF COLORADO;
• STATE OF CONNECTICUT;
• STATE OF DELAWARE;
• STATE OF HAWAI‘I;
• STATE OF MARYLAND;
• THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN;
• STATE OF NEVADA;
• STATE OF NEW JERSEY;
• STATE OF NEW MEXICO;
• STATE OF OREGON;
• STATE OF RHODE ISLAND;
• STATE OF VERMONT;
• STATE OF WASHINGTON;
• STATE OF WISCONSIN

Defendants:

• U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
• LINDA McMA­HON, in her offi­cial capac­i­ty as Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion,
• CRAIG TRAINOR, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as act­ing Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of the Office for Civ­il Rights

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

OPEN
Last fil­ing: Nov. 24, 2025

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