Illinois Attorney General announces block of Education Dept. mental health grant cuts

CHICAGO, Ill. (WCIA) — Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced the successful block of the Trump administration’s attempts to cut select mental health programs.

On Tuesday, Raoul announced that a federal judge blocked the administration from “illegally” cutting some congressionally approved funding for K-12 mental health programs. Raoul and a coalition of 16 states attorneys general previously filed a lawsuit in June,

alleging that cuts to the Department of Education violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the U.S. Constitution.

In April, the Department of Education notified grantees that their programs conflicted with the Trump administration’s priorities and that their funding would be discontinued. In a release, Raoul said the department’s non-continuation decision means that a number of students throughout the state will lose access to essential services from school-based mental health professionals.

He said this is just one of many programs now cancelled by the administration and that it has served more than 50,000 students in Illinois since the beginning of the program. Raoul said without access to these critical funds, students across the state will face a shortage of mental health professionals who provide support and make schools safer.

“The Trump administration continues to unlawfully interfere with federal funding authorized by Congress, but this time, at the expense of our children’s mental health,” Raoul said. “Now more than ever, students in Illinois and across the country deserve the opportunity to see mental health professionals while they spend most of their days in school. I will continue to stand beside my colleagues to oppose illegal actions that directly impact our communities.”

In the release, Raoul said that after the 2022 deaths of 19 students and two teachers during a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a bipartisan Congress appropriated $1 billion to bring 14,000 mental health professionals into schools. Since then, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) reported grantees served almost 775,000 students and hired nearly 1,300 school mental health professionals in the first year of funding.

NASP also found a 50% reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, decreases in absenteeism and behavioral issues, and increases in positive student-staff engagement based on data from sampled programs.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Raoul and the coalition allege that the Department of Education’s grant non-continuations violate the APA and the U.S. Constitution. The attorneys general are asking a federal judge to rule that the non-continuations are illegal and seek an injunction rescinding the decisions.

In this coalition, Raoul was joined by attorneys general of the following states:

• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• New Mexico
• New York
• Nevada
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• Washington
• Wisconsin