The U.S. Department of Education is moving to restart about $270 million in student mental health grants, reviving two school-based programs that were previously canceled under the Trump administration and refocusing the money on efforts to expand the school psychologist workforce.

The action centers on two programs: the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program. Federal Register notices and Education Department program materials show the department opened new competitions for fiscal 2025 funds, with the school-based services program designed to help state and local education agencies increase the number of credentialed mental health services providers in high-need districts, and the demonstration program aimed at partnerships that train school-based mental health providers for employment in schools and local educational agencies.

The combined funding is expected to total about $270 million. Reporting by K-12 Dive, citing the new grant competitions, said the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant was funded at $180 million, with 25 to 35 expected awards averaging $1.5 million. The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant was funded at $90 million, with 18 to 24 expected awards averaging $1 million.

The restart comes after the department ended earlier rounds of awards that originated in fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024. Those grants had been created in the aftermath of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the 2022 federal law enacted after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and were meant to strengthen mental health services in schools by helping districts recruit, train and retain professionals who work directly with students.

The revised competitions, however, are not a simple restoration of the prior grant structure. Education Week reported that the new version directs funding toward school psychologists and removes Biden-era priorities that encouraged applicants to diversify the mental health workforce and recruit professionals from the communities served by districts. The department’s new priorities also restrict the use of grant funds for activities it describes as involving gender ideology, political activism, racial stereotyping or hostile environments for students of particular races.

That shift makes the relaunch both a funding development and a policy reset. Supporters of the restart say districts urgently need more school mental health personnel, especially as schools continue to handle post-pandemic behavioral concerns, absenteeism, school violence fears and rising demand for crisis intervention. Critics of the narrower framework say student mental health work is usually multidisciplinary and depends not only on psychologists but also on school counselors, social workers, nurses, family liaisons and community providers.

The Education Department’s own program pages describe the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program as a competitive grant for state education agencies, local education agencies and consortia of local agencies to increase the number of credentialed school-based mental health services providers in districts with demonstrated need. For the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program, the department says projects should support partnerships that train providers for school and local agency employment.

Current department materials list fiscal 2025 awardees across multiple states and jurisdictions. The School-Based Mental Health Services page lists recipients including state agencies and local districts in North Carolina, Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Rhode Island, California, New York, Arizona and Wisconsin. The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration page lists awardees including state education agencies in Oklahoma, North Carolina, American Samoa, Nevada, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska and Arizona.

The renewed awards are especially relevant for high-need districts, rural systems and communities where student access to school psychologists is limited. K-12 Dive cited data showing that the recommended ratio from the National Association of School Psychologists is one school psychologist for every 500 students, while Education Department data from the 2023-24 school year showed a national ratio of about one to 1,065. That gap has made federal workforce funding a major issue for school administrators and professional associations.

The policy dispute behind the grant restart has also moved through the courts. K-12 Dive reported that the discontinuation of the previous grants prompted a lawsuit by 16 states in federal court in Washington state. The litigation challenged the federal government’s decision to terminate grants that schools and training programs had already built plans around. Some education organizations warned that the canceled grants disrupted services and caused people preparing to enter the school psychology profession to pause or reconsider those plans.

For districts, the immediate effect of the restarted programs will depend on award timing, local hiring conditions and whether applicants can build the required partnerships quickly enough. The demonstration program is particularly dependent on training pipelines, which can take years to produce fully credentialed professionals. That means the grants may help stabilize future staffing but are unlikely to solve immediate shortages on their own.

The relaunch also highlights a broader federal debate over how Washington should support student mental health. The Biden administration framed school mental health grants as part of a wider school safety and youth well-being strategy after U ??????????????…