Facing a loss of about $10 million in federal grant funding, Colorado has joined 15 other states in suing the U.S. Department of Education for stripping K-12 schools and higher education institutions of dollars Congress approved to staff schools with highly trained mental health professionals.
The federal government in April yanked back about $1 billion in grant funding previously set aside for schools and local governments across the country to provide more support to students in the form of school counselors as mental health challenges have escalated into a crisis.
Attorneys general in states suing the federal government over the grant funds say discontinuing the funding is illegal and unconstitutional, arguing it violates both Congress’ power to control spending and separation of powers. The plaintiffs also allege the federal government did not provide the kind of advance notice or an explanation for defunding the grants required by the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Education Department notified state education departments, districts and higher education institutions about the termination of the grants at the end of April through “boilerplate notices,” according to a news release from Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office.
“The notices provided little to no insight into the basis for that decision and hamstrung projects years in the making,” the release stated.
The federal funding earmarked for Colorado was on track to prepare 955 mental health professionals — some new to the field, others coming from a clinical background — for positions in Colorado schools at a time most schools are running short on mental health staff, Weiser told The Colorado Sun.
“The current situation is our kids are hurting,” Weiser said. “We’re seeing more and more addictive behavior on screens, more and more trauma that kids are exposed to, more and more thoughts of suicide and self-harm and we need to be supporting our kids with every tool that we can.”
Weiser said counseling isn’t the only strategy the state must invest in to help students deal with mental health pitfalls.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, speaks at a news conference on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Denver, Colorado, where he announced a $3 million grant to fight opioid overdoses. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)“But it’s absolutely a core part of what we need to offer our kids,” he told The Sun. “The fact that we have too few of them is hurting our kids.”
The $1 billion at stake, including the $10 million in Colorado, stems from two federal grant programs that have positioned schools to better meet the needs of kids battling mental health issues. The School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program, developed by Congress in 2020, is designed to help states and districts expand their teams of mental health professionals. The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program, established by Congress in 2018, funds innovative partnerships that train mental health professionals to address youth mental health in schools.
Colorado’s portion benefitted training initiatives involving the state education department and across a variety of schools, including the University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Denver, Metropolitan State University and Poudre Valley School District R-1.
Dollars pulled back by the federal government were appropriated by Congress in 2022, after a mass shooting that year at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were killed.
“There was an awareness of how young people were facing all sorts of trauma and challenges,” Weiser said, noting that Congress wanted to fund efforts in schools to create safe spaces where kids could open up about their trauma.
“When you can mention what’s happened, when you can work to come to terms with it, build better resilience,” he said, “you’re going to have a healthier and happier life.”
The Colorado Department of Education learned April 29 that the U.S. Department of Education planned to terminate its School-Based Mental Health Grant at the end of December, according to CDE spokesperson Emma Garrett-Nelson.
The notice the state agency received did not include an explanation for putting an end to the grant, according to CDE spokesperson Roberto Paniagua Morales.
Education Week, meanwhile, reported that in an April 29 letter sent to grantees, the Education Department stated that the grants provide “funding for programs that reflect the prior Administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current Administration.”
A spokesperson for the Education Department accused grantees of using their funding for diversity, equity and inclusion priorities — which the Trump administration wants to abolish — “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,” Education Week reported.
CDE’s grant, awarded in October 2024, was set up to give the state $1.5 million each year from 2024 to 2029 that would go toward helping districts draw more mental health professionals to schools.
Garrett-Nelson said the state department has not disbursed any funds to districts since it’s still early in the grant’s timeline.
“We are deeply disappointed by this decision,” Garrett-Nelson said in the statement. “Addressing the mental health needs of students remains one of the most urgent priorities identified by school and district leaders throughout Colorado.”
Colorado has signed onto 27 lawsuits with other states against the federal government since President Donald Trump took office in January, including a lawsuit fighting a federal push to end teacher training grants that prepare teachers to work in rural schools and another lawsuit challenging Trump’s efforts to significantly cut AmeriCorps programs.
Other states part of the lawsuit over federal mental health grant dollars are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Colorado, 15 other states sue U.S. Department of Education for axing grants funding mental health professionals in schools )
Also on site :