The Trump administration’s recent decision to strip $400 million in funding for AmeriCorps won’t directly affect many paychecks in the Tri-Cities, but it will hit multiple services for hundreds of children in the region.

From math tutoring in Pasco schools, advocacy for abused and neglected children in the juvenile justice system, and incentives for students to attend class, the loss of funding for paid staff managing those programs means the volunteers and resources they provide will also dry up.

“We had a unique opportunity to change children’s negative perception of school to a positive one, and I only hope we did enough to impact their lives before our program was ripped from them,” said Casey Moddrell, an AmeriCorps mentor at Kiona-Benton City Middle School for the Attendance Matters program of United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties, in a statement.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has joined a lawsuit filed by two dozen other attorneys general to reinstate the funding. However, it’s unclear if the money is restored whether the programs could recover.

“We are getting new information almost daily. What I do know is the longer it takes, the harder it will be to bring all the members back,” Jessica Sagdal, program director for Serve Tri-Cities, told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.

According to the lawsuit challenging the funding cuts, President Donald Trump’s administration began dismantling the more than 30-year-old program in mid-April via efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency. Program-specific and administrative staff were placed on administrative leave and began to be notified April 24 that their positions were being eliminated. The next day, federal officials began notifying state-level agencies that nearly $400 million worth of AmeriCorps programs were immediately terminated.

The lawsuit notes that federal lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have criticized the move, which the attorneys general say Congress has not authorized.

“The administration’s abrupt decision to dismantle AmeriCorps flouts Congress’s creation of AmeriCorps and assignment of agency duties; usurps Congress’s power of the purse and thereby violates the Constitution’s separation of powers; and arbitrarily and capriciously – without any reasoned analysis – vitiates the agency’s ability to function consistent with its statutory mission and purpose,” the lawsuit states.

Washington state receives more than $21 million in AmeriCorps funding for hundreds of programs administered by staff with the assistance of 1,300 volunteers, according to a release from Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office. Cuts to those programs threaten everything from wildfire prevention, staffing at food banks, support for veterans and seniors, help for young people to prepare for college and student academic support, a release read.

“It will also hurt the volunteers who put their lives on hold to serve others, ending their health care benefits and stipends,” Ferguson said in a statement.

Along with Serve Tri-Cities, three other AmeriCorps-funded agencies operate in the Tri-Cities. They include Teach for America, which sends new teachers to underserved schools; Washington Service Corps’ IT Service Corps through WorkSource Columbia Basin; and the Washington Association of Child Advocate Programs, which supports the volunteer guardian ad litem program of Benton County.

Additionally, there are AmeriCorps grants that pay for initiatives supported by other entities, such as United Way’s Attendance Matters program. That program serves 700 middle school students throughout the region with one-on-one mentors and group support to reduce chronic absenteeism.

Each agency has at most a handful of individuals who receive salaries or stipends locally, but without them the programs can’t continue, leaving students without teachers, advocates or tutors.

“The loss of this program means the loss of thousands of hours of direct service to students, as well as a disruption to our partnerships with schools and nonprofits who have come to rely on our AmeriCorps members as trusted, trained team members,” Sagdal told the Journal.

United Way is considering shifting to a new pilot program for its Attendance Matters effort that would have part-time mentors working with students at middle and elementary schools. It’s an approach the organization has considered for months, as data shows attendance habits start forming long before kids enter middle school, LoAnn Ayers, president and CEO of United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties, told the Journal.

“Our commitment to getting kids in school and staying in school to graduate will never change," she said.

However, without AmeriCorps funding, which provided 60% of the program’s budget, it will have to be scaled back depending on the smaller local grants it can scrape together.