Washington is leading a coalition of 16 states in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over cuts to mental health programs at K-12 schools.
Attorney General Nick Brown and 15 other attorneys general signed onto a lawsuit on Monday alleging that the Trump administration’s cuts to Congressionally approved funding for mental health professionals in schools violate the U.S. Constitution.
“School-based mental health programs can be a literal life-saver for our students,” Brown said in a statement. “The Department of Education’s decision threatens the safety and well-being of our youth.”
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin all signed onto the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
In 2022, a bipartisan Congress approved about $1 billion in funding for mental health resources after the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. That funding helped hire nearly 1,300 school mental health professionals to serve 775,000 students across the country, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
In April, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was discontinuing that funding, which it said conflicted with the Trump administration’s priorities.
In Washington, those cuts mean that 90 school districts might have to reduce mental health services this fall, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The lawsuit alleges that the cuts and the generic notices announcing the cuts to grantees violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution. The attorneys general are asking the court to rescind the department’s decision to discontinue funds.
“These discontinuances threaten the very purpose of these Programs — to protect the safety of our children by permanently increasing the number of mental health professionals providing mental health services to students in low-income and rural schools,” according to the lawsuit.
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