A federal judge called the Trump administration’s cuts to school mental health programs “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered funding be reinstated. Photo by Alex Green/Pexels
A federal judge called the Trump administration’s cuts to school mental health programs “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered funding be reinstated.
U.S. District Court Judge Kymberly Evanson issued the order Monday after 16 state attorneys general sued in response to the U.S. Department of Education withholding about $1 billion to hire additional school mental health professionals and provide additional services to students.
“It’s a relief to students and their families that a large number of these programs are shielded for now,” Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown, who led the case, said in a statement.
The funding was part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which included money for school safety, crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to tighten background checks to purchase firearms.
The bill’s passage marked the first time Congress passed legislation intended to address gun violence three decades. It was spurred by a mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
“Congress created these programs to address the states’ need for school-based mental health services in their schools, and has repeatedly reaffirmed the need for those services over the years by reauthorizing and increasing appropriations to these programs,” Evanson wrote in the ruling.
During its first year of funding, school districts and others that received grants served nearly 775,000 students and hired nearly 1,300 school mental health professionals, according to National Association of School Psychologists figures cited in the complaint.
The funding was also used to diversify school mental health professionals, according to court filings, which conflicted with President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity equity and inclusion programs.
In April, the Education Department began sending out notices to grant recipients in April notifying them that their funds were being canceled. The reason given was that they conflicted with the priorities of the Trump administration and the department’s policy of “prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.”
The department defended its decisions in a statement to The Washington Post, saying “Our new competition is strengthening the mental health grant programs in contrast to the Biden administration’s approach that used these programs to promote divisive ideologies based on race and sex.”
Evanson wrote in her order that the cuts would also hurt rural areas as well. Specifically, Maine schools face the imminent loss of 14 mental health providers, she wrote.
