The U.S. Department of Education will be deploying a new round of mental health grants.
According to Education Week, the Education Department will distribute more than $208 million to school-based mental health programs to train and hire additional providers and psychologists. The funding follows the Trump administration’s decision in April to cut over 200 health grants, totaling $1 billion, for recipients who incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments into hiring, recruitment, training, and certification practices, notes a separate Education Week article.
In a news release, the Department of Education claim the grants that were discontinued prioritized “the racial characteristics of providers and divisive ideologies, instead of focusing on competent provision of proven mental health interventions for students.”
Now, the Education Department has awarded a new round of grants to 65 recipients. Education Week reports that 33 of those recipients are “rural states and school districts” who will receive more than $120 million.
Per the Department’s news release, grant allocations will prioritize recipients with commitments to expanding the number of credentialed school psychologists and retaining providers through bonuses, stipends, and community support. Additional grant priorities include “building necessary capacity and local support to ensure the provision of intensive mental health services beyond the life of the grant.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the news release, “Under the Biden Administration, it was more important to shape the racial and gender identities of mental health providers than it was to focus resources on high-quality, credentialed school psychologists who are best positioned to serve American students when they are at their most vulnerable.”
She continued, “While there was doubt that the Trump Administration could right this wrong and re-compete these dollars before the end of the year, we are proud to announce that we did exactly that. Today, over $200 million is being awarded directly to states and school districts to support student mental health — a meaningful win for our education system.”
In response to Trump’s decision to cut grants in April, 16 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit. In October, a federal judge ruled in favor of the states attorneys, stating that the grant cancelations “were likely invalid because they contained no individualized reasoning for stopping the in-progress grants,” according to Education Week.
The judge’s order prevents 49 grantees out of the 223 nationwide from having their grants cancelled, and those grantees should have their funding continue beyond Dec. 31. However, legal proceedings are ongoing in the broader case over the legality of the cancellations.
