Attorney General Dan Rayfield has achieved a significant legal victory by securing a court order that mandates the restoration of over $1 billion in federal education funds. These funds, which are part of the Department of Education programs, are intended to support low-income and unhoused students and address the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on K-12 education.
The court order was issued by Judge Edgardo Ramos from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. It compels the Department of Education to immediately reinstate states' access to these critical resources while legal proceedings continue.
Attorney General Rayfield, alongside a coalition of 15 other attorneys general and the Governor of Pennsylvania, initiated legal action against the Trump administration. This action was in response to what they described as an arbitrary termination of state access to grants provided under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The grants were initially available until March 2026 but had been unilaterally ended by a decision communicated in a letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon dated March 28, 2025.
Rayfield emphasized the importance of these funds, stating, “This is a win for Oregon students. These funds were supposed to help kids who’ve had it the hardest – students from low-income families and kids without stable housing. Trying to hold that support hostage over a political fight was just wrong. We stepped in to stop it, and the court backed us up.”
The preliminary injunction granted by Judge Ramos prevents further enforcement actions that would block state access to ARPA funding. The lawsuit was supported by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, and Washington D.C., along with Pennsylvania's governor.