On July 10, 2026, the attorneys general of 15 states filed a lawsuit alleging the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) is seeking to terminate “some or all” of $1 billion in mental health grants despite a permanent block preventing the USDE from doing so in a case brought last year by many of the same states. The original lawsuit filed last year by 16 states challenged the USDE’s decision to discontinue the mental health grants due to conflicts with the administration’s priorities over their support for diversity, equity and inclusion. In December 2025, a U.S. district court ruled those cancellations unlawful.
According to the latest lawsuit, because the original court blocked “discontinuances,” the USDE now plans to “terminate” the grants. Further, as stated in the suit, “though the precise mechanism by which the Department plans to end the protected grants may have changed, its illegality has not.”
In February 2025, the USDE moved to abruptly terminate funding for the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program. Those programs were established after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, and then expanded after the 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
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