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The federal Job Corps youth training program, under threat of shutdown by the Trump administration since May 2025, will remain open after a group of students successfully fought the closure in federal court.

The U.S. Department of Justice agreed Aug. 10 to stop efforts to indefinitely 鈥減ause鈥� operations at 99 youth training centers in nearly every state, reaching a with seven students backed by the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The settlement lets the centers 鈥� which provide job training, dormitories and living expenses for 25,000 low-income students between 16 and 24 every year 鈥� continue serving students. It also ends worries the centers would close with students still in the middle of training for fields that include construction, health care, manufacturing and transportation.

鈥�(The) settlement puts an end to the unlawful threat hanging over Job Corps students’ heads for the last year,鈥� said Adam Pulver, a lawyer for the students.

In court filings, students told stories of being shut out of their dorms or being ordered to leave their Job Corps campus last year after the Trump administration ordered the centers to stop operating with one month鈥檚 notice in May, 2025.

“If the shutdown continues, I will not be able to earn my trade certificate in the (Certified Nursing Assistant) program despite my training.”

Abigail Shauger, student at the Job Corps center in Grand Rapids, Michigan

鈥淚 want nothing more than to stay and finish my program, so I intend to remain on campus and attend classes until I am forced to leave,鈥� Maddex Noah Davis-Newman, 19, a trainee at the Tongue Point Job Corps center in Oregon told the court last June. 鈥淚n the past two weeks, I have lost a lot of friends here who had to return to abusive homes or are back living on the streets.鈥�

Others told the court they had dropped out of high school a few years earlier, or been kicked out of their parents鈥� homes, before Job Corps offered them shelter, food and training.

 鈥淚f not for Job Corps, I would have become homeless,鈥� Abigail Shauger, 19, a student at the Job Corps center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told the court last June.

鈥淚f the shutdown continues, I will not be able to earn my trade certificate in the (Certified Nursing Assistant) program despite my training,鈥� she added. 鈥淚 was so close, with only two months left till my tests.鈥�

The U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees the program, referred questions to the Department of Justice, which did not respond to questions from 社区黑料. Administration officials have said since last May that Job Corps does not bring enough benefit to students to justify costing more than $1.6 billion a year.

鈥淛ob Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community,鈥� Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer 鈥淗owever鈥�the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve.鈥�

She pointed to a study finding that the program costs more than $80,000 per student per year, with just a 39% graduation rate and participants earning less than $17,000 a year, on average.

Job Corps has also long been on the list of programs conservatives consider wasteful, with the Heritage Foundation criticizing its several years ago because of low high school and college graduation rates and small wage increases for participants.

The non-profit , saying the data in that study was distorted by the pandemic, that the cost per graduate is about $57,000 and earnings average about $31,000.

Pulver said the government鈥檚 failure to follow shutdown procedures spelled out in law doomed its attempt. The administration had ordered the centers to stop operating with just a month鈥檚 notice. But Pulver said federal law lays out an orderly path to closing Job Corps centers over time, if the program is to be cut, so that students are not abruptly turned away with training half-finished.

He called the administration鈥檚 attempt to 鈥渟uspend鈥� operations while seeking to wipe out the program鈥檚 budget a 鈥渟leight of hand鈥� to avoid public debate and closure procedures. That let the students win a U.S. District Court ruling in July, 2025, blocking the suspension until the case was resolved.

鈥淚 think the judge in this case agreed that suspending something indefinitely, with no intention to ever reopen it, is closing it,鈥� Pulver said.

The administration also did not succeed in its hope of removing funding for Job Corps from the federal budget. through at least June 2027.

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