Harlingen CISD finance staff told the Finance and Planning Committee that five federal grants were temporarily put on pause for review in early July but have been released and notices are being distributed by the Texas Education Agency.

Ida Ambriz said the district received notice on July 2 that Title I, Part C (migrant), Title II, Part A (supporting effective instruction), Title III, Part A (English language acquisition), Title IV, Part A (student support and academic enrichment), and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (ACE program) grants were placed under a review. The US Department of Education released the 21st Century grant on July 21, and Ambriz said the remaining four grants were cleared by July 28 and sent to states for distribution.

"We have received notice from TEA. They have received the funds and they are working on releasing those grant notices to all our Texas school districts," Ambriz told trustees. Finance staff said they will continue to monitor TEA’s release of formal grant notices, which are required to obligate and draw down federal grant dollars for programming.

The committee did not take formal action; staff said the releases are positive news for district programming that relies on federal funds.