Education Department terminated $1 billion in school mental health grants without required individualized review

On April 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education sent boilerplate termination notices to grantees of the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program, telling them that their multiyear grants -- created by the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting -- no longer aligned with the Trump administration's priorities and would be discontinued. The $1 billion program had funded mental and behavioral health professionals in schools nationwide and provided services to nearly 775,000 K-12 students in its first year; it had enjoyed bipartisan congressional support, including from Republican Sens. John Cornyn, Susan Collins and Thom Tillis.

A coalition of 16 states led by Washington sued in June 2025, arguing the department acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson agreed. She found the department's termination notices contained no individualized reasoning and that "nothing in the existing regulatory scheme comports with the Department's view that multi-year grants may be discontinued whenever the political will to do so arises," ordering the department to reconsider each grant under its own required regulatory procedures rather than newly invented, unpublished priorities.

Updates

2025-10-27 — Judge grants preliminary injunction blocking the terminations [3]

Judge Evanson issued a preliminary injunction halting the terminations for roughly four dozen grantees across 15 of the 16 plaintiff states, finding the department had likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

2025-12-02 — Ninth Circuit denies department's bid to stay the injunction [1]

A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel rejected the department's request to stay Evanson's preliminary injunction pending appeal, rejecting its argument that the district court lacked jurisdiction.

2025-12-22 — Court rules terminations unlawful, orders grants reinstated [4]

Judge Evanson granted the states summary judgment, ruling the department's boilerplate notices violated the Administrative Procedure Act, and ordered the two sides to agree on a timeline for the department to make lawful continuation decisions.

2026-02-24 — Ninth Circuit again rejects department's bid to avoid compliance [9]

A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel rejected the department's second attempt to set aside the compliance deadline in Evanson's order, ruling the department's discontinuation notices "were not tailored to the specific grants and failed to explain what was wrong with each grantee's project" -- forcing the department to extend grant continuation awards, which it issued "under protest" while continuing its appeal.

2026-07-28 — Second termination attempt blocked by temporary restraining order [6][7]

After the department signaled it would move to terminate the grants again and asked the court to clarify whether doing so would violate its injunction, the coalition of states (15 states, led by Washington) filed a new suit. Judge Evanson granted a temporary restraining order on July 28, 2026, days before the department's planned termination date, blocking roughly $3 million in funding for Connecticut school districts alone from being cut.

2026-09-08 — States tell court department is defying its order; department disputes it has finalized any termination plan [8]

At a preliminary injunction hearing, the states asked Evanson to permanently bar the department from further terminations, arguing its renewed termination push defies the December 2025 order. A Justice Department attorney countered that the department had not finalized or announced any concrete termination plan and had only sought clarification of the injunction's scope. Evanson had not ruled as of the hearing.