Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Second Attempt to Halt Mental Health Grants to Struggling Schools and States
WASHINGTON D.C. (KEYT) – Last night, a federal court blocked the Trump Administration's plans to unilaterally terminate mental health grants that school districts and states use nationwide to address shortages of mental health professionals, especially at low-income and rural schools.
On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted a temporary retraining order after attorneys general from 15 states sued over the terminations, alleging the action violated the Administrative Procedures Act, the General Education Provisions Act, and the U.S. Constitution's Spending Clause.
"Plaintiff States filed a motion for TRO [Temporary Restraining Order], alleging they are likely to prevail on their APA [Administrative Procedures Act] claim (specifically the contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious theories) and Spending Clause claim," stated the federal court's decision issued Monday. "After considering the parties' briefing, the remainder of the record, and the argument of counsel, the Court will grant Plaintiff States' motion and enjoin the Department [of Education] from taking further action to unlawfully terminate the Grants."
Through a series of directives beginning in February of last year, the Trump Administration tasked federal agencies with reviewing all existing federal grant programs to ensure they complied with the new administration's priorities -especially regarding federal funds dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility- and alleged that those program's goals may violate federal civil rights laws.
"[R]oughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' (DEI) or 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation," argued Executive Order 14173 issued on January 21, 2025. "Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system."
Congress passed two federal grant programs in response to evidence that schools -particularly schools in rural, low-income, and high-need areas- did not have sufficient mental health access for students.
Both bills were signed into law by President Trump during his first term.
The grants were created through the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program of 2018 and the Mental Health Service Profession Demonstration Grant Program of 2020 which issued the grants to fund scholarship and clinical training for graduate students as well as subsidize the salaries of mental health professionals hired by states and local education agencies.
The U.S. Department of Education administers the grants, some on a multi-year basis, and in April of 2025, "After that re-review [of the mental health grant programs], many Program multi-year grantees received notices of non-continuation in April 2025," stated the federal court's opinion granting a temporary restraining order Monday.
On June 30, 2025, 16 states filed suit against the termination of the mental health grants by the Department of Education and the court granted a motion for summary judgement, vacated the terminations notices, and issued a permanent injunction of the cuts after, "finding that the [Education] Department's re-review procedure culminating in discontinuation decisions was arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law" noted Monday's decision.
"The courts have once again agreed with states nationwide and halted the Trump Administration's illegal actions," California Attorney General Rob Bonta argued in December of last year regarding the federal court's decision. "This time, the President tried mightily to rip away funding that supported the mental health of our most vulnerable students. California and our sister states stepped in, and we are proud to have secured a court ruling permanently barring the U.S. Department of Education from withholding mental health funding from schools for any reason that does not have to do with grantees' performance."
Despite that decision, the Department of Education issued new notices about terminating the grants again in June of this year under the authority of 2 C.F.R. § 200.340.
The same federal law that details how to lawfully terminate federal grants has been used in other attempts to alter Congressional appropriations by the Trump Administration under a novel reading of the federal statute.
"To circumvent this court order[issued in December of last year], Defendants now seek to take the same illegal actions through a different procedural mechanism, claiming the injunction only prohibits
'discontinuing' grants, not 'terminating' them," argued a new lawsuit filed in the same federal court that issued the December decision. "Defendants' [U.S. Department of Education] plan...targets the Washington grants [grants protected in the December decision] for termination using the same unpublished priorities (provided in internal February and June Directives) that Washington enjoins for, among other reasons, failing to meet statutory notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements. It therefore shares this defect."
Monday's decision also noted the shared defects between both attempts to terminate the grants.
"As the Court explained in the Washington action [December's federal court decision], it is unlawful to make funding decisions for approved multi-year Grantees by evaluating their original grant applications against new unpublished priorities not in effect at the time that the Grants were approved," explained the decision issued Monday of this week. "It is likely that the [Education] Department's termination plan is based on such an unlawful evaluation because the June 2025 directive instructs Department personnel to complete a re-review of the Grants using the same unpublished priorities identified in the February 2025 directive, and this guidance is apparently still in effect at the Department."
"It is also unlawful for the Department to withhold payments from Grantees without first
providing the notice and an opportunity for administrative and/or judicial review required under
GEPA [General Education Provisions Act]," added the U.S. District Court Monday. "[A federal] agency must first attempt to secure voluntary compliance and provide an opportunity for a hearing before terminating a grant on that basis, and must report the violation to Congress 30 days before a termination can be effective. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000d-1; 20 U.S.C. § 1682; 34 C.F.R. §§ 100.8–.11, 106.81."
"Because the Department's termination plan likely reflects an unexplained change in Department policy, and the Department's plan likely fails to comply with its own regulations or the statutes identified in this section, and bases terminations on factors Congress did not intend the Department to consider, the Department's termination plan is likely arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law and thus violates the APA [Administrative Procedures Act]," concluded District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson.
Judge Evanson then explicitly required that the Department of Education provide written notice of compliance with the ruling within 24 hours of Monday's decision as well as a status report within the same time constraint signed by the Trump Administration's legal counsel in the suit.
"The Trump Administration once again targeted critical school mental health funding, and once again, we pushed back. The court's ruling [Monday] blocks its unlawful attempt to terminate these grants while our case moves forward," stated Attorney General Bonta, a plaintiff in both cases. "We will continue fighting the Administration's illegal actions and ensure schools have fair access to essential mental health services."
The temporary restraining order is set to expire on August 24 of this year as the court decides the coalition's request for a preliminary injunction as proceedings continue shared the California Attorney General's Office in a press release Tuesday.
Your News Channel reached out to the Department of Education for a statement and more information and its response will be added to this article when it is received.
