The grant awards for the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration and School-Based Mental Health programs come after the ED scrapped funds earlier this year to mental health programs that upheld racial quotas and preached gender ideology, the department said.
“Under the Biden Administration, it was more important to shape the racial and gender identities of mental health providers than it was to focus resources on high-quality, credentialed school psychologists who are best positioned to serve American students when they are at their most vulnerable,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“While there was doubt that the Trump Administration could right this wrong and re-compete these dollars before the end of the year, we are proud to announce that we did exactly that. Today, over $200 million is being awarded directly to states and school districts to support student mental health – a meaningful win for our education system,” she added.
The new awards are going to a total of 65 recipients with the aim of increasing the number of credentialed school-based mental health service providers and delivering mental health services to student in “high-need local education agencies,” ED said.
Out of the 65 new awards, 33 are going to rural communities, with $120 million going to rural states and school districts. The awards are supposed to lower student-to-school psychologist ratios, boost evidenced-based interventions in rural areas, support provider recruitment through financial incentives like stipends and bonuses, and strengthen the school-based mental health workforce, ED said.
In April 2025, ED announced that it was not continuing more than 200 school-based mental health provider grants that “placed ideology above serving students and included priorities out of line with the Trump administration,” the agency said.
ED said it decided not to continue mental health grants that:
- Used racial preferencing in the hiring process
- Mandated trainings that taught discrimination on the basis of immutable characteristics and gender ideology
- Used taxpayer dollars for staff to obtain DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) certificates
- Practiced racial quotas in staffing and recruitment
Some of the “non-continuation decisions” have been paused amid a lawsuit brought by 16 Democrat state attorneys general, the department noted.
ED proposed new priorities for the school mental health programs in July and finalized its new priorities in September after a period of public comment.
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As part of its new policy, ED updated eligibility requirements so that funds are only sent to state or local educational agencies that then partner with institutions of higher education — instead of sending money directly to colleges and universities.
“This update ensures that state and local school leaders are in the driver’s seat when it comes to determining the best approach for meeting their students’ unique needs,” ED said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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