15 States Sue to Stop Trump From Killing $1 Billion in School Mental Health Grants
Democratic attorneys general say the administration is defying a court order by moving to terminate Parkland-era funding that pays for counselors and psychologists in schools nationwide at the end of July.
A coalition of 15 states sued the Trump administration this month to block it from terminating roughly $1 billion in federal grants that pay for mental health professionals in public schools, escalating a legal fight over funding created in the aftermath of the 2018 Parkland shooting.
The complaint, filed July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, names the Department of Education and Secretary Linda McMahon. The attorneys general argue that the administration plans to unlawfully end the grants at the end of the month, in defiance of a December 2025 court order that had already blocked an earlier attempt to cancel the program.
At stake is money that districts across the country use to hire and train school counselors, psychologists and social workers—positions that expanded sharply after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Congress established the grant program in the wake of that massacre to address a nationwide shortage of mental health staff in schools, particularly in rural and low-income communities.
The states contend the Education Department is attempting to strip the funding on the grounds that some grantees used it in ways tied to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The attorneys general say that rationale is a pretext and that abruptly cutting the grants mid-cycle would leave districts unable to pay staff they have already hired for the coming school year, forcing layoffs weeks before classes resume.
School districts that received the money have warned that the loss would be felt immediately in communities already struggling to meet soaring demand for youth mental health services. Rural districts in particular have used the grants to recruit counselors and psychologists to areas where such professionals are scarce, and administrators say federal dollars were the only way to compete for hard-to-fill positions. Advocacy groups note that the funding was one of the few bipartisan responses to a wave of school shootings and a documented surge in adolescent anxiety and depression, making its potential elimination politically charged as well as legally contested.
The lawsuit is the latest front in a broader confrontation between Democratic-led states and the administration over control of federal education dollars. Plaintiffs are asking the court for an emergency order to keep the money flowing past the July 31 deadline while the case proceeds. Education officials have defended the move as a lawful exercise of the department's discretion over how appropriated funds are spent, setting up a high-stakes test of how far the executive branch can go in clawing back grants that Congress has already approved.
Originally reported by Stateline.