The grant was discontinued in the state's 2011 budget by Governor Edward G. Rendell. The district did not participate in: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Environmental Education annual grants 2012, 2013 or 2014; 2012 Striving  Readers Comprehensive Literacy grant; 2013 Safe Schools grants; nor the 2012 and 2013 Pennsylvania Hybrid Learning Grants. Lancaster School District received an extra $22,460,550 in ARRA - Federal Stimulus money to be used in specific programs like special education and meeting the academic needs of low-income students. The funding was limited to the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 school years. Due to the temporary nature of the funding, schools were repeatedly advised to use the funds for one-time expenditures like acquiring equipment, making repairs to buildings, training teachers to provide more effective instruction or purchasing textbooks, computers and software. In July 2003 and 2004, Lancaster School District received a federal grant which was run by the PDE. The grant calls for the establishment and sustainability of community learning centers that provide additional educational services to students in high-poverty and low-performing schools. The grant was competitive. Applications for the grants were reviewed and scored by a panel of representatives from the educational field and professional grant writers. The school received $750,000 in 2003 and $796,746 in 2004. Again in 2010, the district received $750,00. In 2011, the district received $500,000 and it got $500,000 in 2012. While 101 entities applied for the funding, only 66 were approved including eight charter schools. The funding is for the 2012–2013 fiscal year. Lancaster School District officials applied for the federal Race to the Top grant which would have provided several million dollars in additional federal funding to improve student academic achievement. Lancaster School District was designated a Turnaround district due to low student achievement. Since the school is among the lowest-achieving in the Commonwealth it would also receive an extra $750 per student. Participation required the administration, the school board and the local teachers' union to sign an agreement to prioritize improving student academic success. In Pennsylvania, 120 public school districts and 56 charter schools agreed to participate. Pennsylvania was not approved for the grant. The failure of districts to agree to participate was cited as one reason that Pennsylvania was not approved. In the summer of 2011, the federal government offered School Improvement Grant funding. Several Lancaster School District were eligible for funding due to chronic low student academic achievement. They included: George Washington Elementary School, Hand Middle School, James Buchanan Elementary School, Lincoln Middle School, MCCaskey Campus, Price Elementary School, Reynolds Middle School, Ross Elementary School, and Wheatland Elementary School.