California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, alongside a multistate coalition, announced securing a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Education (Department) from unlawfully discontinuing grants awarded through Congressionally-established school-based mental health grant programs, including millions of dollars awarded to 21 local education agencies and universities in California. The preliminary injunction, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, blocks the Trump Administration from implementing its discontinuation decisions against nearly 50 grantees in plaintiff states, while the lawsuit proceeds. The court’s order also prevents the Trump Administration from reinstituting the discontinuation decisions based on the same or similar reasons against those nearly 50 grantees.
“The court’s decision requires the Trump Administration’s Department of Education to provide thousands of students in our state a fair shot at accessing crucial mental health services that support their success and wellbeing, while our litigation continues,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Instead of fulfilling its mission of promoting educational excellence and equity for all students, the Department of Education is using baseless and unlawful excuses to rip funding from projects that provide necessary mental health services — especially in our low-income and rural communities. The court’s ruling brings us one step closer to ensuring the Department of Education follows the law when it makes mental health grant award decisions in the future.”