On May 2nd, 2025, the US Department of Education announced a $1 billion dollar cut in mental health grants.
Following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in 2022, the Biden administration approved $1 billion dollars in grants to schools across the country to help student’s mental health. This money would be used to hire school therapists, psychologists and other personnel in that department. According to Mary Wall, former deputy assistant secretary for the U.S Department of Education, “One of the first questions after every single school shooting is whether the student had access to mental health support and services,” and ““It is no stretch to say that taking away this support introduces the risk of harm to school communities and students.”
However, on May 2nd, Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, posted to social media announcing the cancellation of the grant money, saying “No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health.”
Following this, the Department of Education officially announced the cancellation of the grants.
Although the Department of Education didn’t quote any specific civil rights law nor provide the grants’ recipients any reason for the cuts, a spokesperson from the Department explained that the money was being used to increase the diversity in psychology and therapy hires within the schools. Madi Biedermann, current deputy assistant secretary for the U.S Department of Education explained that ““Under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden administration, 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,” said Madi Biedermann, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications. “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.”
This aligns with President Donald Trump’s recent goals to decrease and eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion framework practices. According to Tina Opie, a DEI consultant and professor at Babson College, “DEI initiatives are intended to address and correct discriminatory policies or practices that may be found within an organization.” Further, ABC News provided some examples of DEI practices such as “ implementing accessibility measures for people with disabilities, addressing gender pay inequity, expanding recruitment practices among underrepresented demographics, holding anti-discrimination trainings and more.” His administration has cut billions already from DEI efforts and has threatened to cut even more. “In his first week in office, President Trump signed an Executive Order restoring merit-based hiring and promotions across the federal government,” says the fact sheet provided by the White House
However, the Department of Education does not plan to completely abandon the schools which were going to benefit from the grant. According to a notice, ““The Department plans to re-envision and re-compete its mental health program funds to more effectively support students’ behavioral health needs.”
Schools, like those in Wake County, were granted 14.1 million to hire school mental health professionals. They had plans to hire 27 new members of staff across 40 schools, supplying students with in-person and virtual therapy sessions. However, on April 29th, they learned that they would not be receiving the rest of the budget.
The following Friday, on an announcement on its school website, Wake County said “Parents, educators, mental health professionals, and policymakers all recognize that supporting the mental health needs of our students has never been more important,” and continued with “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 County is just one of many districts whose grants were cancelled.
In conclusion, although the grants were rescinded, the target schools will still be taken care of and not forgotten, the plans for the money is just being restructured for a more efficient cause.
