Education Department Ordered To Restore Mental Health Grants

by Sharelle B. McNair

October 29, 2025

Evanson labeled the federal agency’s decision arbitrary and touched on it being capricious as the states argued the damage done from the grants being cut.

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A judge has ordered the Trump administration to administer millions of dollars in grants meant to address the shortage of mental health workers in schools, after cancelling $1 billion in funding, ABC News reports. 

In a preliminary ruling by Seattle U.S. District Court Judge Kymberly K. Evanson, the White House has been ordered to restore grant funding used to hire mental health counselors and social workers to 16 states that challenged the Department of Education’s (DOE) decision to withhold funding past December 2025 in the name of diversity opposition.

The grants were part of the Congressionally -funded 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a bill passed following the school shooting that took place in Uvalde, Texas, resulting in 19 elementary school students and two adults being killed at the hands of a teenage gunman. According to NPR, the bill would pour federal dollars into schools to address concerns of a student mental health crisis.

However, once President Trump dialed back on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in schools, the DOE said the grants violated “the letter or purpose of federal civil rights law,” even though the grants had already proven their worth. 

In Corbett, Oregon, the grants helped Superintendent Derek Fialkiewicz more than triple the number of school mental health professionals in his district of 1,100 students, which is largely rural. Before the funding came into play, the school official said his district had just two counselors, which he realized was “just not sustainable for our students and especially coming out of COVID.”

Evanson labeled the federal agency’s decision arbitrary and called it capricious, as the states argued about the damage caused by the grants being cut. “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.

“There is no evidence the Department considered any relevant data about the Grants at issue.” 

The ruling will reinstate funding to Democratic-led states and districts, including Madera County, California, restoring close to $3.8 million. Marin County in the same state will get back $8 million. Hopefully, other states like Maine will reap the benefits of the ruling, as the Trump team claims their decision was based on the thought that the funding was harmful to children since some aspects of the grant touched on race. 

After the bill was passed, the grants assisted nine rural school districts in Maine in hiring 10 new school mental health workers and retaining four more.

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