States battle with Education Department over school mental health funds

An appeals court previously ruled that the Trump administration couldn’t unilaterally slash school mental health funding.SEATTLE (CN) — A coalition of states and the federal government argued Thursday over whether the latter had the right to unilaterally discontinue grants for mental health services to prevent the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion.In the wake of school shootings, Congress established and funded two programs in 2018 and 2020 that awarded mental health funding to the country’s high-need, low-income and rural schools. According to the 16 states led by Washington state in their initial complaint, the funding gave around 775,000 elementary and secondary students access to mental and behavioral health services.The states say that changed in April when the department and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon discontinued funding for 137 grants nationwide, accompanied by vague claims that the states’ promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion conflicted with the Trump administration’s priorities.Attorney Ellen Range of the Washington Attorney General’s Office argued that federal government unlawfully changed fund continuation goals by focusing on hindering DEI initiatives instead of considering the grantees’ performance in using the funds.Range added that the federal government wasn’t exempt from following its official process to change grant guidelines, which she said aligns with the reasoning for the Ninth Circuit’s decision to block the Trump administration’s attempted funding slash.“The states challenge the government’s ‘move fast and break the law’ approach,” Range said.At Range’s prompting, her colleague Jennifer Chung asked U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson for partial summary judgment due to the federal government violating its own regulations by ignoring grantee performance, refusing to prioritize continuations awards over new awards and imposing new priorities to existing grants without notice or comment.To that point, she also asked for an injunction preventing the federal government from approving new grant applications with the old funds before they finished reviewing the 137 grants’ performances.“What ultimately matters are results,” Chung said. “That’s why the Department of Education chooses a data approach for grant decisions. With older grants, you have data. With new grants, you have applications.”Brian Kipnis from the U.S. Attorney’s Office pushed back on the states’ argument that the discontinuation decision was arbitrary and capricious, saying that there isn’t a final agency action to consider in this lawsuit.Besides, Kipnis added, there is an inherent deference paid to the federal government in administrative actions under the Supreme Court decision in Skidmore v. Swift & Co.According to Kipnis, the federal government has the authority to discontinue a grant based on its interests, not just the grantee’s performance, especially if there are competing grant applications.“Maybe the grantee’s performance is fine. It’s still within the government’s discretion to discontinue a grant,” said Kipnis.He also said that the time needed to reconsider the discontinuation decisions will take longer than Dec. 26 deadline the states seek, especially considering downsizing at the department. Range rebutted that the deadline is consistent with the time when the department would normally issue end of year notices to grantees.As for the argument about the federal government’s powers of discretion, Range said that once the federal government decided to implement new priorities to existing grants, it needed to undergo comments and rulemaking as required by the General Education Provisions Act.Evanson, a Joe Biden appointee, promised to deliver a decision as soon as possible.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing
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