Press Release Details
Press Release Message
San Francisco (March 11, 2025) - The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and the City of Santa Fe have filed a lawsuit against AmeriCorps for illegally conditioning program funding on compliance with President Trump’s executive orders and actions. AmeriCorps, the federal agency known for funding volunteer service programs to help disadvantaged communities, sent an illegal demand letter to grant recipients, stating that all funding would be revoked unless grantees implemented President Trump’s anti-equity, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-environmental policy preferences in their programs.
“SFUSD will remain steadfast and laser-focused in our work of educating students,” said SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Maria Su. “We are grateful to the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office for their pro bono representation of SFUSD in this matter. As we grapple with a set of dire financial challenges, this partnership enables us to preserve precious resources and sustain vital programs that benefit SFUSD students furthest from access.”
“As we continue the important work of educating our students and remain focused on improving student outcomes, we must ensure that we support all students—their future is our top priority,” said Board of Education President Phil Kim. “The Board is ready to do what it takes to ensure that San Francisco’s public schools maintain these vital services.”
The city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, joined SFUSD in filing the lawsuit. The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is representing SFUSD in the lawsuit.
“President Trump cannot hold our schools and our kids hostage to force people to agree with him,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu. “As Congress intended, AmeriCorps funding has provided our students with critical support they need to overcome challenges and succeed. We are pleased to represent SFUSD in this matter to ensure our most vulnerable students continue to benefit from these crucial programs.”
Background
AmeriCorps is a federal agency that supports a variety of public-private partnerships to address local challenges through “voluntary citizen service” members, who are typically adults between 18 and 24 years old. AmeriCorps awards grants to fund activities “designed to help the poor, the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, and the elderly.”
Congress has explicitly endorsed AmeriCorps programs that meet unmet “health, veteran, and other human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs and promote greater community unity through the use of organized teams of participants of varied social and economic backgrounds, skill levels, physical and developmental capabilities, ages, ethnic backgrounds, or genders.” Congress envisioned AmeriCorps-funded programs would identify and meet “unmet educational needs within communities,” and approved of mentoring programs “for disadvantaged youths and other youths.”
SFUSD has applied for and received AmeriCorps grant funds for approximately the last ten years to operate Healthy Choices AmeriCorps. The Healthy Choices program provides mentoring services to vulnerable students across 38 SFUSD schools and employs 17 full-time members and around 20 part-time members. The Healthy Choices program pairs vulnerable SFUSD students with caring, supportive mentors, supplementing students’ learning inside the classroom. Part-time members who are master’s students in mental health and social work degree programs provide additional counseling services to students who need more targeted interventions. AmeriCorps members also provide services that are available to all students at a given school, such as facilitating lunch-time activities and clubs, planning heritage month celebrations, or running a school “store” that rewards students for good behavior and academic achievement. Healthy Choices enables SFUSD to combat chronic absenteeism and promote academic success and student belonging across its diverse student body.
The AmeriCorps grant agreement does not prohibit SFUSD from using its award on activities that promote DEI activities. In fact, during the application process, AmeriCorps required SFUSD and other applicants to verify their “commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” and explain how leadership and staff “have similar lived experience as the beneficiary population and/or community being served.”
On February 13, 2025, AmeriCorps issued a demand letter to states that administer their grants, stating that all current AmeriCorps grant awards must comply with President Trump’s executive orders and actions, including the executive orders targeting DEI programs, LGBTQ+ communities, and climate change initiatives. The AmeriCorps demand letter required all grant recipients to immediately self-certify that their programs comply with all administration executive orders and do not include any “activities that promote DEI activities.” If a non-compliant recipient did not want to change its programming and amend its grant, it was required to relinquish the funding by emailing the regional AmeriCorps office by February 19.
If the AmeriCorps demand letter is found lawful, SFUSD would likely have to disband their “Rainbow” or Genders/Sexualities Alliance clubs, as AmeriCorps members provide primary support for those student groups. SFUSD has also had to begin altering its training for AmeriCorps members, who have previously been trained on implicit bias and using students’ preferred pronouns and chosen names. When AmeriCorps members are matched with students, SFUSD uses widely accepted best practices to pair mentors and students with shared identities or experiences, and SFUSD may have to go against those best practices in the future. Students often want to discuss facets of their identity with their mentors, and it’s unclear if AmeriCorps members would have to abruptly end all such conversations with students under this new directive.
This decision comes at a difficult time for SFUSD, which is facing a significant budget deficit and preliminary layoffs. The school district simply cannot afford to relinquish $667,194 in grant funding and dozens of mentors who provide daily services to San Francisco’s most vulnerable students.
The lawsuit filed today alleges that the AmeriCorps demand letter violates the Constitution's Spending Clause and the Administrative Procedures Act. Plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief to prevent the letter from being enforced and a declaration from the Court stating that it is unconstitutional and invalid, was issued after the operative grant agreement date, and that Trump’s executive orders do not impose obligations on AmeriCorps grantees.
The case is San Francisco Unified School District, et al., v. AmeriCorps, et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Case No. 3:25-cv-02425.
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