Haleyville City Schools preparing for potential federal funding shortfall

HALEYVILLE    - At least $68 million in federal funding intended for education programs is currently being withheld from the state,  leaving state and local educators in limbo as to how funds can be reallocated or programs or services cut, if the funding is not received.
Specific programs under review, meaning funding is currently being withheld,  include Migrant Education (Title I-C), Supporting Effective Instruction (Title II-A), English Language Acquisition (Title III-A), Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program (Title IV-A), officials said.
These grants account for at least 13.4 percent of all the federal funding received by the state, according to the Learning Policy Institute.
Haleyville City Schools is already looking to redirect funding on at least three Title programs that will be affected, if funds continue to be withheld, according to Chere Fetter, director of instructional services for HCS.
HCS does not receive Title I Part C funding, Fetter explained. HCS receives Title I Part A, last fiscal year amounting to $547,673, used for improvement of academic programs, Fetter said.  This Title funding will not be affected by the withholding of funds.
“We have already received our FY 26 in Title I Part A, a preliminary allocation for $525,000,” Fetter noted.  “This is not the final allocation for FY26.”
HCS also receives Title II monies used for class size reduction, which will be affected by the withholding, Fetter continued.
“The Title II money we budget for an extra teacher at our middle school in the sixth grade,” Fetter explained. “We look at a lot of data points when we’re trying to choose which way we are going to put that class size reduction teacher in.
“We look at test data,” added Fetter. “We look at student population, all kinds of things go into that.”
Last fiscal year, HCS received $81,316 in Title II funding, Fetter said.
“That money did not even pay the entire salary for a class size reduction teacher,” noted Fetter, “so we had to take a little bit that was left over and pick it up in Title V money.