Organizations serving Maryland’s neediest kids recently found themselves scrambling to stay open after being cut off from the state’s largest single funding source for after-school programs.

The future was just “a big question mark” Wednesday for those operators as the federal government suddenly froze funds they were expecting to run summer and after-school programs, safe spaces parents rely on when school isn’t in session.

Ellie Mitchell, director of the Maryland Out of School Time Network, which works to increase access to high-quality after-school and summer programs, said the federal Education Department’s decision “kind of decimates our field.”

“There’s a whole ecosystem of youth development organizations that braid and blend funding in order to survive as organizations,” Mitchell said. “And when you pull one thread, and this is a big thread ... you start to topple the whole garment.”

The U.S. Department of Education emailed state education agencies Monday, informing them that they would be unable to access federal funds expected to be released the following day. In total, the Trump administration is withholding nearly $7 billion from states, money earmarked for services such as helping kids learn English and teacher training in addition to after-school and summer programs.

More than a day later, state education officials were trying to understand the decision’s full impact on Maryland.

“According to our preliminary projections, Maryland is expected to receive an estimated $125 million less in federal funding for specific Title programs compared to last year,” state education department spokesperson Raven Hill said in an email. “These funds represent real dollars and real positions in school systems across our state.”

Of that, $25.3 million was supposed to go to 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant recipients, which provide literacy and other educational development to students in schools with high percentages of children from low-income families. In Maryland, nearly 24,000 students attend such programs, mostly in Baltimore and Prince George’s County. It’s unclear when, and even if, the frozen funds will reach those kids.

That extracurricular programming, which provides kids with a safe place to learn, play and eat when they’re not in school, could be destroyed by even a temporary lapse in funding. Although states usually have to wait until July 1 to access federal dollars, school districts and their boards have already budgeted the funds because they were approved by Congress and President Donald Trump months ago.

The immediate impact, Mitchell said, is uncertainty.

Elev8 Baltimore is one of the grant recipients under the 21st Century program. Executive Director Alexandria Adams said it has not received notification regarding the status of the final year of funding under a multiyear grant. It is planning for the worst.

“Quite frankly, we’re trying to raise money to backfill — just being very thoughtful, because we have 10 programs that are at jeopardy of closing," Adams said. “Those are in some of the most neediest communities.”

After-school and summer programs provide meals, homework help and hands-on learning, said Erik Peterson, senior vice president of policy at the Afterschool Alliance. That can look like cooking classes and gardening. In programs serving older kids, that can also mean teaching college- and career-readiness skills, building robots and navigating the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Those programs have also been shown to combat issues such as chronic absenteeism, according to the Afterschool Alliance.

Adams added that Elev8’s programs serve as a pipeline for early-career professionals, giving them the experience they need to become classroom teachers.

The programs impacted by the administration’s latest round of withheld funds are targeted to families that can’t afford these services on their own, Mitchell said. If programs close, families may find themselves shut out of already limited options. Kids could be left unsupervised.

“Maryland is already in the bottom 10 states for access to after-school programs,” Mitchell said. “We have this huge supply-and-demand problem. And this is just going to make that 100 times worse.”

In its letter, the federal Education Department did not explain why it was reviewing the funds except to say the department “remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities.”

The Education Department forwarded a request for comment to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, which said in an emailed statement that “initial findings have shown that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.“ The statement pointed to alleged use of funds “to promote illegal immigrant advocacy organizations” and to “conduct a seminar on ‘queer resistance in the arts,’” but did not provide specific examples. The statement also did not reference any programs in Maryland.

“This is an ongoing programmatic review and no decisions have been made yet,” the office said.

The office did not respond to a question concerning how withholding funds fits in with the Education Department’s policy of returning education decisions to the states. Peterson said the affected after-school programs are partially formed by community input, meaning they’re “really serving local communities and responding to their needs.”

Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy at the School Superintendents Association, said education officials have to make decisions on how they plug holes right now. She’s anticipating emergency school board meetings across the country as officials figure out how to pay for contracts and salaries they budgeted with money shut away in D.C.

In Anne Arundel County, for example, the school district is down an estimated $4.2 million. Part of that money is for “systemic programming for multilingual learners and their families,” spokesperson Bob Mosier said, and “all students who qualify for those services would be impacted if the reductions were to be permanent.”

The school district is analyzing the effects of the federal government’s action and “will work to minimize school-based impacts of these reductions.”

Hill said the district is “deeply concerned about any drop in federal funding.”

“Many school systems are not prepared to absorb cuts to before- and after-school learning enrichment programs, professional development for school staff and tutoring programs,” she said.

Maryland Rep. Sarah Elfreth said in a statement that withholding already appropriated federal funding is unconstitutional and “an abuse of power” that must be reversed.

“Schools are already scraping by with less than they need,” said Elfreth, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Anne Arundel and Carroll counties and all of Howard County.

Other Democrats representing Maryland in Congress railed against the Trump administration, calling the withholding illegal and unconstitutional.

Rep. Jamie Raskin said funding these programs is governed by law and called the withholding of it “a terrible ambush against America’s students and teachers.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said it was “an attack on the success of our students and our public schools.”

Even if the federal government eventually releases the withheld funds, officials may have already canceled contracts without a way to pay for them, Pudelski said. Programs may already have closed.

“This is unprecedented. We’ve never had this happen before,” Pudelski said. “We’re operating in total darkness.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.