Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago — Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul co-led a coalition of attorneys general in securing an agreement with the Trump administration to prevent it from withholding federal funding from state and local education agencies under a new and unlawful certification requirement. The requirement sought to eliminate critical programs and policies related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, and impose penalties on schools that refused to abandon these programs and policies that promote equal access to education in K-12 classrooms across the nation.

“The Trump administration attempted to illegally stop the allocation of congressionally mandated funds to push a vague, anti-diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility agenda at the expense of some of the most vulnerable children in Illinois and across the country,” Raoul said. “I am pleased with this outcome and proud to have successfully defended this important funding that helps ensure all children have access to a quality public education.”

On April 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education informed state and local agencies that they must sign a document setting forth the Trump administration’s new interpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in relation to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — or else risk immediate and catastrophic loss of federal education funds. The administration did not define which diversity, equity and inclusion practices it finds objectionable, or the basis of its legal objections. Illinois, like many other states, refused to certify its compliance under the terms of the administration’s new requirements, explaining that there is no lawful or practical way to do so given the department’s vague, contradictory and legally unsupported interpretation of Title VI.

On April 25, 2025, Raoul co-led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit asserting that the department’s attempt to terminate federal education funding based on its misinterpretation of Title VI violates the Spending Clause and Appropriations Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the separation of powers, and the Administrative Procedure Act. A complementary lawsuit, American Federation of Teachers v. United States Department of Education, obtained an important victory vacating the April 3 certification request. That decision recently became final when the parties filed an agreement dismissing the administration’s appeal.  

Today’s agreement resolves this lawsuit and secures the critical commitment from the administration to apply the relief obtained in the American Federation of Teachers lawsuit to schools in Illinois. It prevents the administration from withholding any funding based on these unlawful conditions.

The agreement protects nearly $1.4 billion in congressionally mandated financial support that the U.S. Department of Education provides to Illinois each year for a wide variety of needs related to children and education. The funding includes financial support to ensure that students from rural and low-income families have the same access to high-quality education as their peers, provide special education services, recruit and train highly skilled and dedicated teachers, fund programming for non-native speakers to learn English, provide support to vulnerable children in foster care and without housing, and provide technical programs to put students on the path to careers.

Attorney General Raoul co-led the lawsuit with attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York. Joining them in signing this agreement are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.