Student backpacks seen on the first day of school last year at Harborview Elementary School in Juneau, Alaska. Fifteen Democratic-led states are suing the Trump administration over cuts to a $1 billion school mental health grant program. (Photo: Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Fifteen states sued the Trump administration on Friday to prevent multimillion-dollar cuts in mental health funding for schools.
The recent lawsuit is part of an ongoing legal battle between Democrat-led states and the U.S. Department of Education over a mental health grant program established by Congress after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
At stake is a $1 billion program that offers grants to school districts across the country to facilitate them hire and train more mental health professionals to work in schools.
Democratic attorneys general in 15 states say the Trump administration, despite a Court decision of December 2025plans to illegally terminate the subsidy at the end of this month, which will result in a multi-million loss of funds.
“Our children face a unique set of issues that will arise as they grow up in 2026 – from loneliness to substance use disorders to the pervasive fear of violence – and the programs funded by these grants are designed to help them cope and hopefully thrive,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, a Democrat, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
In 2022, after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers, Congress allocated $1 billion for the Mental Health Workers Demonstration Grant program to escalate the number of school mental health specialists.
This financial effort was two-pronged; Republican U.S. senators at the time, including John Cornyn of Texas, Susan Collins of Maine, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina he publicly supported it. During the year, the grants funded mental and behavioral health services for nearly 775,000 students nationwide.
However, in April 2025, under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Education told grantees that funding would cease because their programs contrary to the priorities of the Trump administration. At the time, the grants supported efforts in 49 states to prepare thousands of mental health professionals to work in K-12 schools.
Trump administration officials told the media that the grants were cut because of what the administration perceived them to be related to. diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives.
A coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general defendant last July, and the court ruled in their favor, ordering the Trump administration to stop phasing out the subsidies. Within months of the order, the education department threatened to withhold funding or end the grant altogether.
The Democratic attorney general said they filed the recent lawsuit to fill gaps in a previous court ruling that could allow the Trump administration to pursue its desire to withhold funding.
“Courts have repeatedly ruled that the Trump administration lacks the authority to arbitrarily withdraw funding that provides essential mental health services to our students,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, a Democrat. statement about joining the lawsuit.
“Despite this, the federal government continues to attempt to end funding.”
Stateline reached out to the U.S. Department of Education for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
The attorneys general in the lawsuit are from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at: avollers@stateline.org
This story was originally produced by state linewhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
