Gilmer County Schools is reporting significant cuts in federal funding this year, but students shouldn’t feel any impact.
U.S. Department of Education grants are awarded to state departments, which then award school districts funding using various formulas, typically based on student population data.
From there, GCSS creates a budget that itemizes where the funding will be allocated to submit to the Georgia Department of Education for approval before they can start spending.
Federal Programs Director Lindey Patterson and Director of Student Services Jessica Chastain presented budgets for fiscal year 2025, to the Board of Education at their monthly meeting, Feb. 10.
Title I funding includes the “Improving Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged” grant, which provides funds to school districts with high percentages of low-income families, to ensure that all children meet state standards.
$1,210,303 were allocated to Gilmer schools this fiscal year, compared to $1,286,491 last year. This funding helps pay for some teacher salaries, academic coaches’ salaries, administrative costs, instructional materials and more.
The “Education of Migratory Children” grant provides funding through Title I, supporting comprehensive educational programs for children changing school systems, to help reduce educational disruption.
Those allocated funds dropped from $31,986 last year, to just $23,501 this year. This helps pay for contracted tutoring services during the school year and over summer, instructional materials and more.
The “Supporting Effective Instruction” grant, issued through Title II, went from $194,371 allocated last year, to $187,456 this year. This funding pays substitute teacher salaries, professional learning fees, tuition and books for endorsements, new teacher orientation stipends and more.
This grant is to help school districts increase student achievement to improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers and school leaders, increase the number of teachers who are effective in improving academic achievement and to provide low-income and minority students greater access to effective staff.
Title III funding includes the “Language Instruction for English Learners” grant. This year, $87,706 were allocated to Gilmer schools, compared to $95,623 in 2024.
This grant helps pay for after-school and summer learning for English learners, language support program licenses, professional learning, instructional materials and more.
The “Student Support and Academic Enrichment” grant, awarded through Title IV, is intended to increase the capacity of the district to provide all students access to a well-rounded education, improve school conditions and improve the use of technology to benefit digital literacy for students.
$96,223 were allocated to schools through this grant for 2025, down from $111,436 last year. This funding is used for STEM instructional materials, professional learning expenses, substitute salaries, stipends for PBIS coaches, Google-certified educators and more.
The Title V “Rural Education Initiative” grant is designed to assist rural districts in using federal resources more effectively, to improve instruction quality and academic achievement.
The grant is awarded by the U.S. Department of Education based on the amount of students under the age of 17, who are living below the poverty line, according to data from the U.S. Census.
In 2024, $131,201 were awarded to Gilmer schools. This year, the district did not qualify for any of that funding through Title V.
“Since that number dropped below the threshold, Gilmer did not meet that last year, but we have already received information that we will get that back for [2026],” Patterson noted. “Last year is the first year that we have not had that grant.”
If the district does not spend all of the grant money awarded to them, it carries over to the next fiscal year. GCSS didn’t spend all of their Title V funding last year, so they’re now using that money to cover costs.
“In the past, we have used that funding for professional learning for any instructional materials,” she said. “We’ve had to be a little stricter with the professional learning that we’ve provided, but we’ve used other federal funds to compensate for that.”
When asked if day-to-day operations would be affected by not receiving the grant, she answered, “I don’t know that the schools would feel the impact. If we did not have a carryover from last year, then they definitely would.”
There’s other grants that districts can compete for, including one that focuses on the arts. However, not being awarded funding through Title V hindered Gilmer’s eligibility to apply for those more competitive grants.
She mentioned that several other school districts across the state also did not receive the “Rural Education Initiative” grant for 2025.
The only budgets that increased in funding for this fiscal year were grants for “Special Education Services and Supports,” allocated based on the number of students that qualify for SPED services. Gilmer schools have 483 SPED students enrolled this year, up from 460 last year.
“We continue to increase in our student disability population,” Chastain said. “Just this year alone, we’ve enrolled 63 new students [with a disability].”
The “Preschool Disability Services” grant, “IDEA 611 Special Education: Flowthrough” grant and “IDEA 619 Special Education: Ages 3-5” grant provide a combined $991,841 for this fiscal year, compared to just $965,582 last year.
This funding is used for SPED paraprofessionals’ salaries, instructional materials, supplies for sensory and social emotional learning needs, contracted services for Medicaid billing, adapted and instructional technology, safety equipment for buses and much more.
They applied for the IDEA capacity building grant this year, which awarded $35,000 to GCSS. That bought “decodables” for students experiencing dyslexia or other reading disabilities, according to Chastain.
Gilmer schools were also awarded the “Stronger Connections: Safer Georgia Schools” grant and the “School Security” grant for 2025. This provides a combined $485,620 to be allocated to mental health services, cybersecurity, safety equipment, security cameras, access controls and AEDs.
“Overall, we’re getting less and less federal funds,” GCSS Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley stated at the board meeting. “There’s a lot of questions about the future with the U.S. Department of Education, we’ll see how all that fleshes out. As long as they keep giving us the money in a block-grant form, I think we’ll be fine.”
He addressed that federal funding accounts for about 11 percent of their overall budget, which is significant.
The Trump administration is promising to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, and give more authority over education to state governments.
More than $2.2 billion in Title I funding alone is budgeted for Georgia’s public schools in high-poverty areas for this fiscal year, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, raising concerns over what department disruptions would entail.
“We’ve been told that the funds would be pushed back to the state, so I’m not sure how that would all play out,” Patterson said. “We’re just going to play it by ear and see how that works.”