When Ian Levy , he expected to have five years to train 30 new school counselors who would go on to work in high-need New Jersey school districts.
By the end, he thought he鈥檇 have a group of counselors working in schools across the state where he could send future counselor trainees for hands-on training.
But less than a year into the project, Levy is preparing to wind down much of the work to boost the number of counselors and the profession鈥檚 diversity. Instead of lasting five years, the funding for the initiative will end after one, on Dec. 31, after the Trump administration pulled the plug earlier this year.
The first 10 trainees are completing a year of coursework and were preparing to start working in schools next semester to gain on-the-job experience. Now, whether they鈥檒l be able to do that without the financial assistance from the grant is in doubt, not to mention Levy鈥檚 ability to train two more groups of 10 future counselors each over the next four years. (The grant was to fully cover trainees鈥� tuition.)
鈥淭he grant funding would have ended in five years, but the work of the grant would have lived well beyond the period, in that there would be folks carrying out the mission, and then they would multiply over time,鈥� said Levy, an assistant professor of school counseling at Rutgers University Graduate School of Education.
The funding for the Rutgers initiative came from a $1 billion infusion in school mental health services that Congress passed in 2022 following the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It enabled more than 300 projects across the country, allowing schools to hire mental health professionals and universities to train future mental health professionals to work in schools. Recipients of the funding had five years to do their work.
But Levy and his Rutgers University colleagues were among 223 grantees who received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education in late April, three months into the new Trump administration, saying their grant-funded work reflected Biden administration priorities and was 鈥渋nconsistent鈥� with 鈥渢he best interest of the federal government.鈥�
Funding would end Dec. 31, .
The news came as a disappointing surprise to the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, which had recently begun the third year of its five-year grant. The organization has been working with nine rural and suburban school districts in north-central Kentucky to hire school counselors and support them so they鈥檒l stay in the profession.
The newly hired counselors 鈥渞eally became our mental health special forces in our districts, and then to be told that it鈥檚 not in the best interest of our government to fund it was very frustrating,鈥� said Jason Adkins, the cooperative鈥檚 CEO.
Since the April notices, grant recipients on the chopping block have scrambled to preserve their funding. More than 80% filed appeals with the Education Department, urging the agency to reconsider the terminations. Some . The grant terminations have been the subject of at least four legal challenges.
Some grantees held out hope that they could win back some funding when the Trump administration launched a redesigned competition for the remaining mental health funds in late September.
In the end, few, if any, appeals to the Education Department appear to have been successful. But one lawsuit resulted in a judge鈥檚 order that has preserved funding for 49 grantees鈥攆or now, at least, as the Trump administration has pledged to appeal.
That leaves up to 174 initiatives to boost the availability of in-school mental health services and the ranks of hard-to-recruit school mental health professionals facing the end of their funding in a few weeks.
The Education Department terminated the grants because the Biden administration awarded them under 鈥渄eeply flawed priorities鈥� and grantees were using the funds to 鈥渋mplement race-based actions like recruiting quotas,鈥� a spokesperson said earlier this year. (The Biden administration required applicants to show how their initiatives would boost the diversity of school-based mental health professionals and the number who come from the communities they鈥檙e serving.)
Terminating multiyear grants before the end of the grant period has been rare until this year under the Trump administration. Administration lawyers that grantees shouldn鈥檛 have relied on their funding continuing from one year to the next and that the cancellations were the result of an 鈥渋ndividualized review鈥� that resulted in the termination of two-thirds of the awards.
The department didn鈥檛 answer questions from Education Week about the number of successful appeals nor about how much funding remains available to devote to new grants given that it now must continue funding 49 grantees under the federal court order. But a spokesperson said the agency plans to award those new grants by the end of the year.
Even if grantees manage to preserve their funding or secure new federal funds to continue their work, the disruption itself has done damage, said Sharon Hoover, a former co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health and a professor emeritus of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
鈥淭here are certainly questions about whether this has destabilized the school mental health workforce pipeline,鈥� said Hoover, who described the experience for grant recipients since April as a 鈥渞oller coaster.鈥�
The experience of having grant funding abruptly stopped could influence how potential grantees react to future school mental health funding opportunities from the federal government, Hoover said. And it could discourage prospective school mental health professionals from signing up to participate in federally funded initiatives.
鈥淲ho鈥檚 to say that there鈥檚 not going to be another executive order discontinuation of grant funds?鈥� she said.
Schools saw a chance to make a dent in the need for mental health services
The $1 billion infusion of federal funds for school mental health services came amid a decadelong decline in students鈥� mental health exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and long-running shortages of school counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and other school-based mental health professionals.
鈥淲hat was transformative about this funding was the amount鈥攊t was just the largest investment that we had seen鈥攁nd the fact that it was so widespread in terms of the number of states and local districts that were able to access the funds and tailor them really for improving their school mental health systems,鈥� Hoover said.
The funding went to two grant programs鈥攐ne to help schools hire and retain mental health professionals and the other to train future school counselors, psychologists, social workers, and school-based clinicians. Some 339 entities鈥攁 mix of school districts, multidistrict partnerships, state education departments, and universities鈥攔eceived awards.
In New Jersey, Levy saw the grant he secured as an opportunity to make a dent in a long-running shortage of school counselors.
The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 1 counselor for every 250 students, but that figure nationwide stood at 376 students per counselor during the 2023-24 school year, . In New Jersey, it was 298 to 1.
鈥淭he addition of 30 school counselors over the five-year period, deployed across the state, would have a positive impact on reducing that ratio,鈥� Levy said.
The grant also offered the chance to partner with four local districts in need of added mental health services and to train a new generation of school counselors in methods better suited to the diverse student populations they would be serving.
Much of the school counselor role is focused on working with the entire student population to help students feel connected to and safe at school and prevent serious behavior problems and the need for more intensive mental health services, Levy said. Counselors might work with a class of 9th graders to help them acclimate to high school or with elementary school students on social skills and emotional regulation. They might form connections with community groups to enhance after-school programming.
These strategies 鈥渄on鈥檛 sound like counseling, but what they do is they create an ecosystem where students feel heard and supported and seen, and their families are involved and their communities involved,鈥� Levy said.
That preventative focus has also been a key priority for the Ohio Valley cooperative in Kentucky. Using its $5.2 million, five-year grant, it鈥檚 hired 11 school counselors and paid their salaries, provided them with small retention stipends and tuition assistance, guaranteed they can spend most of their time working directly with students rather than on administrative tasks, and supported their professional development. The counselors have also served as liaisons between school districts and area mental health providers who treat students.
As the five years drew to a close, the cooperative planned to work with the participating districts to incorporate the counselors into their budgets long term. It鈥檚 also taken steps to secure Medicaid reimbursement for services provided by school counselors, as another funding source to sustain their positions.
But with funding expiring Dec. 31, not every district will be able to keep the newly hired counselors after this school year, said Santina Plottner, the cooperative鈥檚 director of school-based mental health services.
Already, five of the 11 have left the program since the Education Department denied the cooperative鈥檚 appeal to reinstate funding in late August. With one counselor hired since then to fill a vacancy, the districts are down to seven new counselors, Plottner said.
Participating counselors described their grant-funded jobs as a 鈥渄ream position,鈥� Plottner said. Schools were noticing a reduced need among students for higher-level mental health services because of the counselors鈥� preventative work, she said.
鈥淚 just feel like the impact has been so large it was really disappointing鈥� to see the funding end years early, Plottner said.
The quoted passages from the original grant application mentioning diversity, equity, and inclusion鈥攕tatements that its 鈥渉iring practices are intended to promote equitable opportunity,鈥� that the organization鈥檚 DEI coordinator would review interview questions, and that counselors would participate in a DEI training offered by Cornell University.
Adkins said the organization tried to recruit a diverse pool of candidates to reflect the students they鈥檇 serve and it made its hires based on merit. In addition, the group later decided against using the Cornell training鈥攕omething Plottner had noted in a grant progress report for the department.
鈥淲e had a really rigorous process and we tried to include that in our appeal, and it seemed as if it had not been considered,鈥� he said.
Trump administration is scrubbing initiatives it says promote DEI
The mental health grants were an early example of the Trump administration鈥檚 attempts to eradicate federally funded initiatives from the Education Department and other agencies that it claimed were promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Since discontinuing the mental health awards, the department has done the same for hundreds of other competitive grant awards鈥攆or special education projects, teacher preparation, and more鈥攃iting passages in grantees鈥� applications emphasizing what the administration considers to be DEI.
In rural Northern California, the McKinleyville Union school district after it to reinstate the $7.2 million, five-year award it had secured with two nearby districts just last year.
In the first year of the grant, the districts have used the money to add a mental health clinician at each school who works with students on campus, so families don鈥檛 have to drive miles away to see the nearest specialist, said Julie Giannini-Previde, McKinleyville鈥檚 superintendent.
They鈥檝e also added a coach in each district who helps teachers use a tiered support system to boost students鈥� mental health and emotional needs.
The award prioritized hiring mental health professionals who reflected the districts鈥� student population, which includes a large number of Native American students.
鈥淭he idea that we have clinicians on campus who kids see themselves in is so important and just means so much,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he idea that we wouldn鈥檛 do that, it just doesn鈥檛 make any sense to me.鈥�
For now, McKinleyville still has its award, as it鈥檚 one of the 49 grant recipients whose funding has been preserved by a court order. But it鈥檚 still far from certain the districts will retain their funding, as the court order is only temporary and the Trump administration plans to appeal.
In New Jersey, Levy said he and his colleagues are looking into alternative funding sources to keep their initiative going.
And in Kentucky, the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative is covering the counselors鈥� salaries out of its own budget until the end of this school year, said Adkins, the CEO.
It鈥檚 also applied for funding under the Trump administration鈥檚 redesigned mental health grant competition鈥攂ut those grants will provide funding only for school psychologists, so the cooperative wouldn鈥檛 be able to use it to continue paying for counselors.
The group included a letter of support from Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in its latest grant application.
After the previous grant鈥檚 termination, Adkins said, 鈥渨e hope that his support gets us a fair review of our application.鈥�
