Latest news with #School-BasedMentalHealthServicesGrantProgram
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump cuts threaten mental health resources for Tacoma school students
After the Trump administration announced cuts to a program that funded mental health resources for students at Tacoma Public Schools, staff say the loss of the funds would be a significant detriment to a student body that contends with higher rates of anxiety, depression and trauma than other students in Washington. Tacoma Public Schools received a grant under the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program from the Department of Education in 2022, providing it with $6,066,390 over five years to pay for 36 mental health clinicians to provide resources and care for students. The grant is the result of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which lawmakers passed in response to growing concerns about student mental health after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that year. Pierce County's biggest school district had been using the funds, which it was supposed to receive in roughly $1 million chunks each academic year, to provide around 3,000 students at Tacoma Public Schools with access to mental health care, according to the district. The Department of Education has notified districts that were receiving the money that they will have until Dec. 31 of this year to utilize the funds, meaning the mental health resources will remain in place until then. But TPS won't receive the remaining $2,655,740 it was supposed to receive for 2026 and 2027. The bipartisan legislation from 2022 doled out $1 billion in grants to school districts to address youth mental health. The letter notifying grantees about the cuts stated that 'funding for programs that reflect the prior administration's priorities and policy preferences conflict with those of the current administration' and could 'violate the letter or purpose of federal civil rights law,' EdWeek reported. Laura Allen, director of Whole Child for the district, said the district is exploring other opportunities to fund the resource after the money runs out in December. 'We have this runway to explore alternative sources, so we're actively working on that,' Allen told The News Tribune. 'There's an appeals process, so we're in the process of engaging in that process. We've also alerted our congressional delegation and hope that there's some possible advocacy there. It's the right thing to do for kids, and we aren't giving up.' The program allowed for school staff to identify students who could benefit from additional mental health counseling and recommend them to one of the 36 support staff who are funded by the grant to meet with students in regular counseling sessions or to identify whether they could benefit from other resources, Allen said. Mental health specialists who provided support to Tacoma students came from local organizations like Mary Bridge Children's Hospital's Youth Engagement Services. Ashley Mangum, director for kids mental health in Pierce County for Mary Bridge, said the program provided three specialists who served students at 23 middle and high schools in the district last year and this year has served 468 students across the district so far. Mangum said the resource has been crucial in helping kids with their mental health before issues they're contending with escalate to crisis level. 'Our system is designed to be reactive, to only be able to manage crisis,' she told The News Tribune. 'Not having access to these services is going to prevent our opportunities to intervene earlier for kids.' The potential loss of the program also comes as the city of Tacoma contends with a spike in youth homicides – four among people 18 and under killed since the start of 2025. Mangum and Allen said that highlighted the need for resources like the ones that the grant funded. 'We know our kids aren't without traumas,' Allen said. 'How do we help them navigate that and be able to come be in class and engage in their learning brain and then have this successful future in front of them? It's everything.' Tracie Barnett, a clinical social worker and mental health specialist with Mary Bridge, has worked with hundreds of students across Tacoma Public Schools' middle and high schools as part of the federal grant. Barnett said she's noticing higher rates of anxiety, depression and trauma amongst the students she works with as they contend with the lingering effects of the pandemic, when some were forced to quarantine in toxic households. 'My clients don't even really care about politics. My clients aren't Republican, they aren't Democrat,' Barnett told The News Tribune. 'This is money that the government, all parties agreed that our youth needed and it's devastating to have it taken away when I feel like we're at this peak of a mental health crisis.'
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Student mental health services hit by cuts
GUILFORD COUNTY — Guilford County Schools stands to lose $9 million in federal grant funds supporting mental health services for students because the Trump administration says the grants promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The U.S. Department of Education notified recipients of its School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program in an April 29 letter that it's canceling $1 million in funding at the end of 2025. The School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program was authorized by Congress in 2022 in response to the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers. Surveys of students since the COVID-19 pandemic have found rising levels of depression and loneliness and rising percentages of those who have considered or attempted suicide. GCS was awarded a $14.8 million multiyear grant in January 2023 to deliver direct mental health services to students and to increase the capacity of school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists and licensed mental health clinicians. The grant pays for 75% of the cost of these efforts, with GCS contributing the remaining $3.7 million. Since the grant's inception, GCS has served over 2,000 students in more than 20,000 mental health sessions, supported by nearly 50 clinicians either directly employed or contracted through grant funding, GCS said in a prepared statement Monday. Plans are currently in place to use the remaining grant funds in the 2025-26 school year to expand methods and resources for identifying students in need of mental health support, the statement said. 'Although grant funding is confirmed through December 2025, under USDOE guidelines, GCS will appeal the decision not to extend the grant beyond that point,' the statement said.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
US cuts $1 billion from school mental health, including $14 million for Wake
The Trump administration is canceling $1 billion in federal school mental health grants — including $14.1 million for Wake County — on the grounds they're promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. The U.S. Department of Education notified recipients of its School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program in an April 29 letter that it's cutting off funding at the end of the year. Grant recipients were told the awards, which are being used to do things like hire more therapists and social workers, don't reflect the priorities of the Trump administration. 'The Department has determined these grantees are violating the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law; conflict with the Department's policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; undermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help; or constitute an inappropriate use of federal funds,' Brandy Brown, the deputy assistant secretary for K-12 education, wrote in an email to members of Congress, Chalkbeat reported. It's the latest action by the Trump administration to cancel billions of dollars in federal grants that it says promoted DEI policies and programs. The Trump administration is applying a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision against race-conscious admissions policies at UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard University to say that DEI violates federal civil rights laws. In October, the Wake County school system announced it had received a $14.1 million mental health grant over five years. Wake planned to use the money to hire 27 people, including 20 therapists, to expand mental health services into 40 more schools. Students at those schools would have been able to receive in-person counseling and teletherapy. 'Parents, educators, mental health professionals, and policymakers all recognize that supporting the mental health needs of our students has never been more important,' Wake said in an announcement on its website Friday that the grant had been canceled. 'This initiative would have expanded access to mental health services to help more students thrive in the classroom and set them on a path to productive citizenship.' Wake says it was still in the planning and preparation stage and was in the process of hiring for the new positions. 'We are actively reviewing our options provided under federal regulations,' Wake said. 'We will continue to prioritize the mental health and wellness of our students and staff and explore alternative funding opportunities to pursue this critical work.' Wake is already appealing the cancellation of another federal grant that would have provided $11.8 million to recruit and train teachers in high-needs schools. Like with the mental health grants, the Department of Education accused Wake of promoting DEI in the grant. The mental health grants had been authorized by Congress in 2022 in response to the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers In awarding the grants, the Biden administration had listed as one of the priorities increasing the number of school-based mental health services providers 'who are from diverse backgrounds or communities.' As a result, Chalkbeat said, applicants tailored their grants to reflect that goal. In its grant application, Wake said it would fill the new mental health positions with 'diverse candidates.' Now the Trump administration is citing the diversity language to cancel the grants. 'Grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,' Madi Biedermann, an Education Department spokesperson, wrote in an email to Chalkbeat. The decision to cancel the grants has drawn praise from conservative groups. 'The Department of Education has terminated $1 billion in grants that were intended to support 'school-based mental health programs,' but were being used to advance left-wing racialism and discrimination,' wrote Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who broke the news about the cancellation on X on April 29. 'No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health.' But the decision to eliminate the grants has been criticized by Democratic politicians, school leaders and mental health activists. 'This is a direct attack on the safety and well-being of America's children — a repugnant act of moral vandalism that will endanger millions of lives,' Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement Wednesday.
