A group of 16 Democratic attorneys general along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration for halting access to COVID-19 school aid, freezing hundreds of millions of dollars of federal pandemic relief money.

School districts had earmarked the COVID-19 school aid money for tutoring struggling students, supporting homeless children, upgrading HVAC systems to improve indoor air quality, and a host of other programs to address the long-term effects of the COVID-19, the lawsuit said.

Under extensions granted by the Biden administration, schools were supposed to have until March 2026 to spend the money. But on March 28, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the U.S. Department of Education would no longer pay expenses related to pandemic recovery, cutting off access to the remaining COVID aid.

“COVID is over,” a spokesperson for McMahon’s department previously said in justifying the decision. “States and school districts can no longer claim they are spending their emergency pandemic funds on ‘COVID relief’ when there are numerous documented examples of misuse.”

The day McMahon sent the letter, the department gave states a 5 p.m. deadline to use or lose the money.

Thursday’s lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, claims that McMahon’s sudden about-face terminating states’ access to the funds was an “arbitrary and capricious” violation of federal law, creating massive budget gaps for state education departments and local school districts. She said this will lead to serious harm to students nationwide.

New York, for instance, lost access to $134 million in funds due to McMahon’s move, according to the suit. Pennsylvania lost $185 million, according to Shapiro’s office. New Jersey had nearly $85 million in remaining funds, and Illinois had about $77 million.

The lawsuit also alleges that the federal department failed to provide a sufficient explanation when terminating access to the funds, and that the move was contrary to Congress’ intent.

The suit is seeking a preliminary and permanent court order preventing the administration from blocking access to the money so the states can continue to access the funds.

Read the full article about COVID-19 school aid by Amy Zimmer at Chalkbeat.