We are very appreciative of the efforts of Attorney General Letitia James in suing the Federal Government for unsustainable cuts to low income and rural schools in regard to youth mental health funding. We are very lucky in New York to have such dedicated and passionate leaders for the voice of youth mental health in Governor Hochul, Attorney General James and Commissioner Sullivan.

Attorney General James Sues Trump Administration for Slashing Youth Mental Health Funding

Department of Education Cancelled Over $1 Billion in Bipartisan Mental Health Funding for Students in Low-Income and Rural Communities, Citing “DEI”

AG James and Coalition Urge Court to Reinstate Grants, Prevent ED from Making Further Harmful Ideological Cuts

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James and 15 other attorneys general sued the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon for unlawfully terminating more than $1 billion in bipartisan federal funding for school-based mental health services. Attorney General James and the coalition are challenging ED’s abrupt decision to discontinue funding for two mental health grant programs – the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program (MHSP) and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program (SBMH) – which Congress created in response to the worsening youth mental health crisis and a series of tragic school shootings, including in Parkland, Florida and Uvalde, Texas. The attorneys general argue that ED’s terminations are unconstitutional and ideologically driven, and are urging the court to reinstate the funding and protect the critical youth mental health infrastructure schools have built under these programs.

“By cutting funding for these lifesaving youth mental health programs, the Department of Education is abandoning our children when they need us most,” said Attorney General James. “These grants have helped thousands of students access critical mental health services at a time when young people are facing record levels of depression, trauma, and anxiety. To eliminate these grants now would be a grave disservice to children and families in New York and nationwide, and my office is fighting back to preserve these much-needed programs.”

“SUNY is grateful to Attorney General James for protecting New Yorkers, including critical resources for mental health support,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. “At a time when school-based mental health services are more important than ever, SUNY is proud that our campuses play a vital role in training mental health providers and we will vigorously defend this important work.”

In 2018, following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Congress established and funded MHSP to address a shortage of mental health professionals in high-need public schools. Two years later, Congress expanded these efforts with SBMH, which provided funding to help schools hire, train, and retain school-based mental health staff. In the wake of the devastating 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Congress dramatically increased funding for both programs, appropriating more than $100 million annually to each program through 2026 and requiring ED to submit detailed spending plans and biweekly updates. Each program was designed as a five-year initiative, with the goal of placing 14,000 new mental health professionals in schools, particularly those in low-income and rural areas.

In the lawsuit, the attorneys general highlight the broad, bipartisan support behind these programs. As Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn noted, Congress “crafted this landmark law with a simple purpose: to reduce violence and save lives.” He explained that the law contains “commonsense measures to improve how our schools address mental health,” noting that “too often, adolescents with untreated mental health conditions become the very same perpetrators who commit acts of violence.”

Attorney General James and the coalition emphasize that these programs have already demonstrated measurable success. In the first year alone, nearly 775,000 students received mental or behavioral health services. More than 1,200 school-based mental health professionals were hired and 95 percent retained. Student wait times dropped by 80 percent. Grantees reported a 50 percent reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, lower absenteeism and behavioral incidents, and stronger student-staff relationships.

Despite these successes, on April 29, 2025, the administration abruptly notified dozens of grantees that their funding would be discontinued, claiming that these program were no longer aligned with “current administration priorities.” The boilerplate notices included vague justifications with no specific findings or performance issues. In statements to Congress and the media, ED acknowledged that it targeted grants for discontinuation based on the programs’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals, despite the fact that such efforts were required under longstanding federal law and were part of the announced criteria used to evaluate and award the grants.

As a result of the administration’s decision to discontinue mental health funding, Attorney General James and the coalition assert that, starting this fall, public schools nationwide will no longer reliably be able to offer critical mental health services. The attorneys general argue that if allowed to move forward, these terminations will force the layoffs of hundreds of school-based mental health professionals, abruptly end services for thousands of vulnerable students, dismantle graduate training pipelines that were helping to address nationwide shortages, and destroy projects that have been years in the making.

New York stands to lose at least $19 million in previously approved funding as a result of these cuts, including over $7.6 million for the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Unless the terminations are reversed, SUNY Binghamton will be forced to pull mental health professionals from schools serving more than 9,000 rural students, laying off 10 full-time staff and several part-time employees and graduate assistants. SUNY Buffalo would be forced to end a fellowship program training school social workers to serve students in Western New York, jeopardizing care for an estimated 3,000 students. Several New York school districts and private institutions have also had their funding discontinued, jeopardizing mental health services for students in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, Hudson Valley, Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley, Central New York, and other communities throughout the state.

Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the cancellation of this funding is both unlawful and unconstitutional, as it undermines Congress’ authority and equity directive and violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because of the lack of notice. The attorneys general also contend that the administration breached the grant agreements and violated federal regulations that govern the continuation of grant awards. Under these regulations, once a multiyear grant is awarded, the decision to continue funding must be based on the grantee’s performance. In this case, ED failed to offer any evidence that the grantees failed to meet performance standards and instead applied an ideological litmus test after the fact, leaving schools and students to suffer the consequences.

The attorneys general are asking the court to declare these grant terminations unlawful, reinstate the funding for the full intended term of the awards, and prevent ED from imposing similar ideological conditions moving forward.

Joining Attorney General James in this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Rural schools feel the pinch from Trump administration’s cuts to mental health grants

Jun 26, 2025, 9:05 PM

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — In parts of rural upstate New York, schools have more than 1,100 students for every mental health provider. In a far-flung region with little public transportation, those few school counselors often are the only mental health professionals available to students.

Hennessey Lustica has been overseeing grant-funded efforts to train and hire more school psychologists, counselors and social workers in the Finger Lakes region, but those efforts may soon come to end — a casualty of the Trump administration’s decision to cancel school mental health grants around the country.

“Cutting this funding is just going to devastate kids,” said Lustica, project director of the Wellness Workforce Collaborative in the Seneca Falls Central School District. “The workforce that we’re developing, just in my 21 school districts it’s over 20,000 kids that are going to be impacted by this and not have the mental health support that they need.”

The $1 billion in grants for school-based mental health programs were part of a sweeping gun violence bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The grants were meant to help schools hire more psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers, especially in rural areas.

Under the Biden administration, the department prioritized applicants who showed how they would increase the number of providers from diverse backgrounds, or from communities directly served by the school district. But President Donald Trump’s administration took issue with aspects of the grant programs that touched on race, saying they were harmful to students.

“We owe it to American families to ensure that taxpayer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students’ mental health,” Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann said.

School districts around the US cut off training and retention programs

Lustica learned of her grant’s cancellation in April in a two-page letter from the Education Department, which said the government found that her work violated civil rights law. It did not specify how.

Lustica is planning to appeal the decision. She rejected the letter’s characterization of her work, saying she and her colleagues abide by a code of ethics that honors each person’s individuality, regardless of race, gender or identity.

“The rhetoric is just false,” Lustica said. “I don’t know how else to say it. I think if you looked at these programs and looked at the impact that these programs have in our rural school districts, and the stories that kids will tell you about the mental health professionals that are in their schools, it has helped them because of this program.”

The grants supported programs in districts across the country. In California, West Contra Costa Unified School District will lose nearly $4 million in funding. In Alabama, Birmingham City Schools was notified it would not receive the rest of a $15 million grant it was using to train, hire and retain mental health staff.

In Wisconsin, the state’s Department of Public Instruction will lose $8 million allocated for the next four years. The state had used the money to boost retention and expand programs to encourage high schoolers to pursue careers in school-based mental health.

“At a time when communities are urgently asking for help serving mental health needs, this decision is indefensible,” state superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement.

In recent House and Senate hearings, Democrats pressed Education Secretary Linda McMahon on the end of the grants and the impact on students. McMahon told them mental health is a priority and the grants would be rebid and reissued.

“Anyone who works or spends time with kids knows these grants were funding desperately needed access to mental health care services,” American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Canceling the funding now is a cruel, reckless act that puts millions of children at risk.”

Grant programs put more mental health specialists in schools

The strains on youth mental health are acute in many rural school districts.

In one upstate New York district, half the students have had to move due to economic hardship in the last five years, creating instability that can affect their mental health, Lustica said. In a survey of students from sixth through 12th grade in one county, nearly half reported feeling sad or depressed most of the time; one in three said their lives lacked clear purpose or meaning.

“We’ve got huge amounts of depression, huge amounts of anxiety, lots of trauma and not enough providers,” Lustica said. “School is the place where kids are getting a lot of the services they need.”

Some families in the region are unable to afford private counseling or are unable to get their children to appointments given transportation challenges, said Danielle Legg, a graduate student who did an internship as a school social worker with funding from the grant program.

“Their access to mental health care truly is limited to when they’re in school and there’s a provider there that can see them, and it’s vital,” Legg said.

In the past three years, 176 students completed their mental health training through the program Lustica oversees, and 85% of them were hired into shortage areas, she said.

The program that offered training to graduate students at schools helped address staffing needs and inspired many to pursue careers in educational settings, said Susan McGowan, a school social worker who supervised graduate students in Geneva City School District.

“It just feels, to me, really catastrophic,” McGowan said of the grant cancellation. “These positions are difficult to fill, so when you get grad students who are willing to work hand in hand with other professionals in their building, you’re actually building your capacity as far as staffing goes and you’re supporting teachers.”

https://mynorthwest.com/national/rural-schools-feel-the-pinch-from-trump-administrations-cuts-to-mental–health-grants/4104176