A missed deadline could cost New Mexico millions of dollars after the state's Public Education Department (PED) was three days late submitting school funding data to the federal government. 

Now, the U.S. Department of Education is asking the state to transfer more than $37.5 million from a reserve fund so that it can make distributions to local school districts and other education agencies, according to an Associated Press article on KOB4. 

"In short, we dispute (the Federal Education Department's) assertion and are exploring legal options and next steps," Ryan Stewart, PED Cabinet Secretary, said in a statement to the Albuquerque Tribune.

The problem stemmed from PED's late application in March 2020 to get approval from the U.S. Department of Education in order to take credit for federal assistance in New Mexico's funding of public schools. 

Stewart said in his statement that the PED had submitted estimated data to the federal Impact Aid Program in spring of 2020 and were told by then-Program Director Marilyn Hall that the estimates were "timely and that we were authorized to take credit."

Faatimah Muhammad, Hall's replacement, said the decision was later overturned after the late filing of the PED's formal application, the Tribune reported.