AG Torrez Asks Court to Enforce Order Protecting School Mental Health Grants

Albuquerque, NM – As part of a coalition of 16 attorneys general, Attorney General Raúl Torrez has filed a motion asking the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to enforce its December 19, 2025 order, which required the U.S. Department of Education (Department) to set aside its unlawful decisions to discontinue school mental health funding programs established by Congress and to issue new decisions in full compliance with the law.

“Working families depend on strong, stable schools that give every child the chance to learn, grow, and thrive — and that includes access to mental health support,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez.

“These mental health funds have made a meaningful impact all across New Mexico, and this is why I led a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief last year in support of Silver Consolidated Schools. The Trump Administration’s decision to offer only six months of funding undermines the very programs Congress created to address a national crisis in student mental health. ”

Subscribe to the Daily Las Cruces Digest

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name *How would you like to be addressed in personalized emails?

/* real people should not fill this in and expect good things – do not remove this or risk form bot signups */

Spurred by episodes of devastating loss from school shootings, Congress established and funded the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program (MHSP) in 2018 and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program (SBMH) in 2020 to increase students’ access to mental health services. On March 2, 2026, the Department decided to only award grantees six months of funding instead of providing funding for the full year, as is standard practice. The Department’s decision to deny grantees’ access to a full year of funding violates the Court’s order because the decision will effectively end some grantee projects and severely burden many other grantees. Without the certainty of a full year of funding, some grantees will lose essential staff and will be unable to properly plan and budget for the fall semester.

In April 2025, the Department notified grantees — including state education agencies, local education agencies, and institutes of higher education — that their grants would be canceled for allegedly conflicting with the Trump Administration’s priorities.

In July 2025, Attorney General Raúl Torrez and the coalition filed a lawsuit against the Department over the discontinuation of the grants, and in December 2025, the coalition secured a permanent decision declaring that the Department acted illegally and requiring the Department to make new continuation decisions.

In the motion to enforce, Attorney General Torrez and the coalition assert that:

• The Department is continuing to violate the Court’s order. In their most recent act of noncompliance, the Department put new, unnecessary rules in place that achieve the same result as canceling some grants and severely hinder other grantees’ ability to serve students.
• By claiming the grants “will continue under protest,” the Department is making grantees jump through unnecessary hoops — like filling out complicated reimbursement forms that historically have only been required for grantees who mismanaged funds and forcing grantees to submit a meaningless performance report before any new data is available.
• The Department has also threatened to withhold six months of funding that grantees would have normally received and need for the fall semester.

“These grants have already proven their value by reducing suicide risk, cutting wait times for services, and helping schools hire the counselors and psychologists’ students rely on,” said Attorney General Torrez. “Our children’s health and safety must never be subject to political gamesmanship or bureaucratic obstacles. We need long‑term, dependable solutions — and that starts with honoring these commitments.”

Both MHSP and SBMH programs have been an incredible success. In their first year, the programs provided mental and behavioral health services to nearly 775,000 elementary and secondary students nationwide. Sampled projects showed real results: a fifty percent reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, decreases in absenteeism and behavioral issues, and increases in positive student-staff engagement.

Data also showed recruitment and retention efforts are working – in the first year of the programs, nearly 1,300 school mental health professionals were hired and 95% of those hired were retained. Importantly, these newly hired school-based mental health providers were able to create an 80% reduction in student wait time for services. The grants have helped schools hire hundreds of psychologists, counselors, and social workers who have served thousands of students, including in the state’s most economically disadvantaged and rural communities. By all markers, these programs work.

Joining Attorney General Torrez in filing the motion are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.