The Federal Government

Who: Congress, the president, the U.S. Department of Education, and the federal courts. Loud in the headlines, far from your classroom.

Power: It barely matters to you, except for testing, lunch, special ed, and your civil rights. Federal money is usually around 8–11% of public school revenue; it hit 11% in 2020–21 with Covid relief (NCES). That money comes with strings:

• ESSA (the Every Student Succeeds Act, 2015) is the main federal school law. It makes states test reading and math every year in grades 3–8 and once in high school, plus science once each in elementary, middle, and high school.
• Title I is the biggest federal K-12 program: extra money for schools with lots of students from low-income families.
• IDEA funds special education and guarantees services for students with disabilities. Federal lunch money comes with nutrition rules, which is one reason cafeteria food looks the way it does.

What they care about: National politics, programs with their name on them, and numbers they can compare across states.

How to work with them: For most fights, don't; follow the money down to your state and district. The exception is civil rights. If you're treated differently at school because of your race, sex, disability, or national origin, or the school ignores harassment, you (or anyone on your behalf) can file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, usually within 180 days (how to file).

Heads up: Since 2025 the administration has been shrinking the Education Department: mass layoffs, and agreements moving programs to other agencies, including K-12 grant programs to the Labor Department, the special ed office to Health and Human Services, and in 2026 much of the civil rights investigation work to the Justice Department (Education Week). Congress and the courts are still fighting over parts of it, so details may change. As of fall 2026, civil rights complaints still start with OCR.