Prime Highlights:
- The U.S. Department of Education has reinstated $270 million in grants to support mental health services in public schools.
- The grants now focus solely on increasing the number of qualified mental health professionals, removing previous diversity and inclusion requirements.
Key Facts:
- The grants include $180 million for the School-Based Mental Health Grantand $90 million for the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant.
- Both programs were created under the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Actto address the growing mental health needs of students across the country.
Key Background:
The U.S. Department of Education has reinstated two major grants totaling $270 million to bolster mental health services in public schools, nearly five months after their discontinuation due to previous diversity-focused requirements.
State education departments and school districts can now apply for the $180 million School-Based Mental Health Grant and the $90 million Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant, according to notices released by the department on September 29. The grants have been revised to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals and concentrate solely on increasing the number of qualified mental health professionals in schools.
Under the previous administration, applicants were encouraged to present plans to increase the diversity of school mental health staff and ensure providers were trained in inclusive practices, including support for non-English-speaking students. The current grant structure, however, prioritizes three main objectives: building state-level capacity to address shortages of school psychologists, strengthening local capacities, and increasing the nationwide number of credentialed school psychologists.
The department cited concerns that DEI-focused initiatives under the Biden administration diverted funds from direct mental health services. “We owe it to American families to ensure that taxpayer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students’ mental health,” a spokesperson said.
The grants were originally established through the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed after the tragic Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, and were part of a broader effort to address a growing mental health crisis among young Americans. Experts have emphasized the critical role of school psychologists, counselors, and social workers in ensuring student well-being and academic success.
The reinstatement of these grants comes amid ongoing legal challenges from 16 states, including Washington, which argued that terminating the funds threatened approximately $1 billion in mental health resources. While the lawsuit is ongoing, the Education Department’s new grants aim to help schools quickly hire and keep mental health professionals.
The School-Based Mental Health Services program will focus on hiring and keeping qualified staff, while the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration program will train future school psychologists. This will give students across the country easier access to mental health support.
