Alaska districts face September 30 deadline to spend or forfeit federal education funds

Alaska school districts with unspent federal education funds from program year 2025 must obligate and request reimbursement by September 30, 2026, or lose the money permanently, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development warned Wednesday. DEED noted that many, but not all, districts have available PY2025 funds and will send expiring-fund notifications only to applicable districts by mid-July.

DEED will notify affected districts by mid-July, leaving roughly 10 weeks to expend funds and submit reimbursement requests, including applicable FY2026 fourth-quarter and FY2027 first-quarter expenses. "Those districts will forfeit any amount not expended by September 30, 2026," DEED's federal programs newsletter stated.

The deadline applies specifically to ESEA carryover funds governed by the Tydings Amendment, which allows federal education funds to remain available for one additional fiscal year beyond the initial period, creating a 27-month obligation window. That window closes September 30 for program year 2025 funds, and DEED says no extension is available. Not all federal education programs face the same cutoff. Under recent federal guidance, states regained late-liquidation flexibility for certain Education Stabilization Fund and ESSER funds, so the September 30 deadline is not universal across every program.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act grants DEED awarded for FY24 through FY26 carry the same September 30, 2026 expiration, with no continuation funding available, meaning multiple federal education deadlines are converging at the end of this fiscal year.

The expiring-funds warning came alongside DEED's release of FY2027 federal program allocations for the 2026-2027 school year. Alaska's Title I-A allocation rose by roughly $2 million to $54,422,666, and the Title I-C Migrant Education Program allocation increased by $91,614 to $20,869,417. Title III-A English Learner Education funding fell by $105,472 to $1,015,174, and both subparts of Title I-D for neglected and delinquent facilities saw decreases. Title II-A and Title IV-A allocations held flat at $10,837,184 and $6,693,000, respectively. DEED said final district-level allocations for most programs are expected to be uploaded to the Grants Management System in mid-July.

Districts operating Title I-C Migrant Education programs face two additional reporting deadlines tied to the close of the 2025-26 school year. The Summer Services Report, which documents Title I-C funded services provided to migratory children between the last day of the 2025-26 school year and the first day of the 2026-27 school year, is due September 30. The Fidelity of Strategy Implementation tool, a self-evaluation of how well districts delivered Title I-C funded services during the regular school year and summer, is due November 5. Both reports are available through the Alaska Migrant Web System.