Press Release  AG Campbell Secures Victory Preventing Trump Administration From Unlawfully Cancelling School Mental Health Grants

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and a coalition of 15 other attorneys general announced that a federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Department of Education acted unlawfully by abruptly discontinuing previously approved grants that fund additional mental health professionals in K-12 schools. On December 19, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted the states’ motion for summary judgment and enjoined the illegal directive to discontinue these grants. The court ordered the Department of Education to make lawful decisions on the continuation of funding for each grant in the plaintiff states. 

“This victory ensures that our young people are not unlawfully denied resources, including mental health professionals in schools, to help them navigate a nationwide mental health epidemic,” said AG Campbell. “This ruling is yet another reminder that the Trump Administration cannot arbitrarily revoke grant funding, especially funding that provides essential services to our vulnerable young people, just because they don’t like the programs. I will continue to fight against this Administration's unlawful actions that harm our children.” 

After the tragic deaths of 19 students and two teachers during a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a bipartisan Congress appropriated $1 billion to permanently bring 14,000 mental health professionals into schools that needed them the most, especially in low-income and rural communities. The programs have been a success—providing mental and behavioral health services to nearly 775,000 K-12 students nationwide in the first year and reducing wait times for students to receive help. 

In Massachusetts, one of the programs supported by this funding is Project Beacon, administered through the University of Massachusetts Boston. Project Beacon prepares 50 school psychologists and counselors to work in local, high-need communities to increase students’ access to educational services and to promote school safety through prevention. If the program were terminated, thousands of low-income students across several school districts in greater Boston would have lost the support of these psychologists and counselors in training. 

The Department of Education awarded grants spanning a five-year project period, with yearly decisions made on whether to continue each grant’s funding. In prior years, the department considered the grantee’s performance when deciding whether to continue funding, as required by its regulations.  

On April 29, the Department of Education abruptly sent boilerplate notices to grantees saying their grants no longer aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities and would be discontinued. On June 30, the states filed a lawsuit challenging that action, saying the department’s actions were arbitrary and capricious and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. In its ruling on December 19, the District Court sided with the states and ordered the Department of Education to make lawful decisions on the continuation of funding for each grant in the states. 

Joining the AG Campbell in filing the lawsuit were the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

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