In a recent ruling, the U.S. Department of Education was found to have acted unlawfully by cutting off mental health program grants that were intended for K-12 schools. Federal Judge Kymberly Evanson of the Western District of Washington sided with Attorney General Nessel, along with 15 other attorneys general, in a lawsuit against the Department, determining that the abrupt halt of these grants clashed with the legal obligations set by the Trump administration's education policies. The judge's order prompts the Department to work with the plaintiffs to agree on a timeline to rectify the situation and proceed with funding decisions lawfully.
Congress had previously agreed to allocate $1 billion to these grants, aiming to supplement schools—particularly those in low-income and rural areas—with 14,000 mental health professionals, and within just the first year, the service reached around 775,000 students nationwide while cutting down the wait times for mental health assistance. Despite these achievements, the Department of Education sent out generic notices to grantees on April 29, indicating that the funding was being pulled back because it did not coincide with the Trump administration’s new agenda.
Attorney General Nessel celebrated the ruling, emphasizing the importance of student mental health and expressing relief that the court ordered the enforcement of the rule of law, ensuring these critical resources would continue to support schools. "Through lawsuits like this one, my office has been able to preserve more than $2 billion in federal funding for Michigan residents, and we will continue to challenge unlawful federal actions to ensure that critical resources remain available to those who rely on them," Nessel told the Michigan Attorney General's office.
This legal confrontation spotlighted the Department's attempt to discontinue annual funding for these grants without considering the grantees' performance—evidence of it being the grants' positive impact, that was on the contrary consistent with regulations set by the institution itself, Judge Evanson pointed out that arbitrary decisions do not align with the regulatory framework concerning multi-year grants; this followed an unsuccessful appeal by the Department of Education to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay on the preliminary injunction issued in October.
Among the states joining Michigan's Nessel in filing the lawsuit were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin, allying in defense of upholding the allocated grants for the well-being of the nation's schoolchildren.
