NYC magnet schools can use $12 million in carryover funds amid battle with feds over gender policy

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Nov 20, 2025

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NEW YORK — The Trump administration and New York City’s public schools have reached a deal to allow some funds flow to local magnet programs while their legal battle over school gender policies plays out.

The order, which was approved Thursday by a Manhattan federal court, lets the magnet schools draw down reimbursements from $12 million in “carryover funds,” or leftover money from prior budget years. In exchange, the city’s school system withdrew a motion for quick but temporary relief, and both the city and federal education agencies agreed move forward on a speedy resolution to the case.

After the order was proposed but not yet signed by the judge, Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos on Wednesday night denounced the “demand that we repeal our policies that protect and celebrate our transgender and gender expansive students.”

“We are sticking to our values and continuing to fight back in court,” the chancellor said at the monthly meeting of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy in Brooklyn. “We are eagerly awaiting the court’s action on our demands that our schools be allowed to access all $12 million of their program carryover funds during this school year while the legal case is pending.”

The U.S. Education Department confirmed Thursday it would allow the magnet schools to use prior year funds through June, while the Trump administration continues to push for compliance with their interpretation of federal civil rights laws.

The city’s school policies currently allow students to use the bathroom and play on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity, even if that’s different from their sex assigned at birth.

In September, the Trump administration told local schools it would cut off tens of millions of dollars in federal magnet program grants, unless the city agreed to change its policies. The U.S. Education Department followed through on the threat later that month.

The public schools responded with a lawsuit that accused the federal agency of pulling the rug out from under the feet of thousands of students, with the school year already underway.

The move affected 19 magnet schools with 7,700 students, according to court documents. The loss of $12 million in carryover funds came on top of another $36 million that had been promised to the city for the remainder of the five-year grant cycle, which the federal lawsuit seeks to reinstate.

Last week, Judge Arun Subramanian ordered the federal government’s lawyers to determine whether the U.S. Education Department would agree to let the city’s magnet schools use leftover money from the prior budget year for the current year, which he said would make moot the city’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Under the subsequent order, the Trump administration must “fully cooperate” with city schools in facilitating the drawdown of carryover funds, court documents said.