Federal judge orders Trump administration to unblock pandemic relief money for schools

School bus drivers are on strike in the northwest Georgia city of Dalton, leaving parents and school officials scrambling to take students to and from school. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Education Department to undo a freeze on the last of the U.S. relief money given to schools to help students recover academically from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government provided $189 billion in aid money for schools during the crisis, giving them broad latitude in how to spend it.

Nearly all that money had been spent, but some school districts received deadline extensions that gave them additional time to use it. Districts spent it on things like after-school tutoring, summer school, social workers, college counselors, library books and renovations to make school buildings safer.