The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Dec. 4 declined a request from the federal government to block a district court order requiring it to continue providing grants to school mental health workers.
The grants, which have been issued by the Department of Education under the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program, are worth approximately $1 billion and fund “high-need, low-income, and rural schools” in their efforts to improve student mental health, according to the plaintiffs’ initial complaint. The Trump administration had discontinued the grants on April 29, citing their alleged use of “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” practices that the administration has tried to purge from the federal government.
