Sligo Law Group Files for Preliminary Injunction in Ongoing Challenge to Education Department's Unlawful Termination of Community Schools Grants

On April 30, Sligo Law Group, the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, and Eimer Stahl LLP filed a motion for preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois as the next step in an ongoing federal lawsuit on behalf of Afterschool for Children and Teens Now Illinois (ACT Now) and Metropolitan Family Services.

The case challenges the U.S. Department of Education's decision to discontinue two Full-Service Community Schools grants totaling $18.5 million. The grants fund after-school programs, STEM education, tutoring, mentoring, summer camps, food assistance, and health services for nearly 19,000 students across 32 schools in high-poverty communities throughout Illinois. In late 2025, the Department issued Notices of Non-Continuation to ACT Now and 17 other Full-Service Community School grantees, citing DEI-related language in their original 2023 grant applications. The Department identified no performance concerns.

The motion argues that the Department's action violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution, including by applying a new anti-DEI standard without notice-and-comment rulemaking, penalizing grantees for language Congress itself required in grant applications, and depriving plaintiffs of meaningful due process. The motion is supported by declarations from 21 witnesses, including school administrators, community partners, and program staff across Illinois.

A temporary agreement has kept services operating through June 30. Without a preliminary injunction before that date, ACT Now will be forced to shut down all program operations, terminate staff, and dissolve a network more than two years in the making.