Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education will begin accepting grant applications for $270 million across two programs aimed at boosting student mental health that were controversially canceled last spring, according to notices to be published in the Federal Register on Monday.
- The Education Department had axed the congressionally approved funding for the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program, saying they conflicted with the Trump administration’s priorities.
- While education organizations are pleased the funding stream is being resurrected, some are concerned the grants' focus is only on school psychologists and does not include school counselors and social workers who also provide student mental health supports.
Dive Insight:
The grants will help address a nationwide shortage of school psychologists, said Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, director of policy and advocacy for the National Association of School Psychologists.
"This funding ensures school psychologists will be available to partner with students, families, educators, and other school-based mental health professionals to help children thrive in school, at home, and in life," said Vaillancourt Strobach, in an email.
NASP recommends that schools have one psychologist for every 500 students. However, Education Department data from the 2023-24 school year shows the ratio was 1-to-1,065.
Myrna Mandlawitz, policy and legislative consultant for the Council of Administrators of Special Education, noted that school psychologists, counselors and social workers have differing training and skill sets but work cohesively to address student mental well-being.
"We have consistently supported having a team of these professionals in the schools, and limiting this just to school psychologists will do a great disservice for our ability to fill the positions that are empty and to provide the services that kids need as soon as possible," Mandlawitz said.
Still, Mandlawitz said the reactivation of the grants is "better than nothing."
After discontinuing the grants in April, the Education Department issued new priorities that would prohibit use of future grant money for “promoting or endorsing gender ideology, political activism, racial stereotyping, or hostile environments for students of particular races.”
The newly issued grants programs are targeted toward building state and local capacity to address a shortage of school psychologists and to increase the number of credentialed school psychologists.
The discontinued grants originated in fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024. The new award for the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant is funded at $180 million. The department expects to issue 25-35 grants averaging $1.5 million.
The new award for the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant is funded at $90 million and the department expects to issue 18-24 awards with an average grant of $1 million.
Education organizations said the grants' discontinuations caused disruptions to school-based services and led thousands of people to halt their plans to enter the school psychology profession.
The discontinued grants spurred a June lawsuit filed by 16 states in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle. That case is still pending.
