The Trump administration must release millions of dollars in grants aimed at addressing the shortage of mental health workers in schools, a federal judge ruled Monday.
After the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Congress provided funding for mental health programs. The grant was intended to help schools hire more counselors, psychologists, and social workers, with an emphasis on rural and underserved areas of the country. But President Donald Trump's administration objected to the diversity considerations used to award the grants, telling recipients they would no longer receive the grants after December 2025.
The preliminary ruling by U.S. District Judge Kimberly K. Evanson in Seattle applies only to grant recipients in some of the 16 Democratic-led states that challenged the Education Department's decision. In Madera County, California, for example, the judgment recovers approximately $3.8 million. In Marin County, California, $8 million was recovered. This judgment will remain in effect while the litigation continues.
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The Education Department was the first to award the grants under Democratic President Joe Biden. The Biden administration prioritized awarding funding to applicants who demonstrated how to increase the number of counselors from diverse backgrounds and the communities the district directly serves.
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When President Trump took office, his administration opposed aspects of the grant program that involved race, saying they were harmful to students. The administration announced in April that the grants were being terminated because they conflicted with the department's priorities of “merit, equity, and excellence in education” and were not in the federal government's interest.
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Evanson said in his ruling that the decision was arbitrary and capricious, and that the states were claiming real harm from the subsidy cuts. In Maine, for example, a grant helped nine rural school districts hire 10 new school mental health workers and hire four more. The state said jobs will be lost when the grant ends.
“Congress created these programs to address the need for mental health services in each state's schools and has repeatedly reaffirmed the need for these services over the years by reauthorizing and increasing appropriations for these programs,” Evanson wrote.
“There is no evidence that the department has considered any relevant data related to the grants in question,” she wrote, and the department has not told grant recipients why their research does not meet the “best interests” standard.
A Department of Education spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
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