• The Trump administration abruptly canceled school-based mental health services grants nationwide. Wisconsin schools will lose $8 million.
• The grant, awarded by the Biden-Harris administration, aimed to address the growing mental health needs of students and staff shortages.
• DPI Superintendent Jill Underly criticized the decision, highlighting the positive impact the funding would make.

When the Biden-Harris Administration awarded the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction $10 million over a five-year period to improve youth mental health services in December, it was the largest-ever expansion of K-12 mental health programs in the state to date.

And it wasn’t just Wisconsin. The investment was poised to help train and hire an additional 4,000 mental health professionals to schools nationally at a time when increasing mental health concerns among students compounded ongoing shortages of school-based mental health professionals.

But May 2, it was learned that less than a year into the grant cycle, the federal Department of Education abruptly terminated the grant earlier in the week. Wisconsin DPI received an email titled “Notice of Non-Continuation of Grant Award” informing the state agency that the Trump administration had determined “not to continue your federal award … in its entirety, effective at the end of your current grant budget period.”

Nationally, the Trump administration discontinued $1 billion in grants that supported school-based mental health programs.

The grants were funded through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a landmark gun safety law passed in the wake of a massacre three years ago in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 elementary school students and two teachers dead.

Specifically, the Trump administration took issue with programs that educated mental health professionals about systemic racism and trained therapists to focus on race-related stress and trauma, among other things, said Madi Biedermann, a spokesperson for the Education Department, according to USA Today.

DPI has made clear it has no plans to back down from inclusive therapy models. The state agency has doubled-down on its commitment to prioritizing diversity.

Wisconsin was among the 19 states that sued the U.S. Department of Education over its efforts to eliminate K-12 school funding for states that refuse to end diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

So far, $2.2 million of the Wisconsin grant had gone toward expanding online certification pathways, developing “grow your own” university programs for future school-based mental health providers, and offering statewide training and professional development to improve retention rates of mental health professionals.

The remaining roughly $8 million will not be awarded.

The 2024 grant was built off the success of a 2020 pilot grant from the federal government, which had put an additional 348 new mental health professionals into local education agencies across Wisconsin since the 2021-2022 school year. Wisconsin was one of a handful of states involved in the pilot program.

In hiring more mental health professionals, the state also shrunk its troublingly high ratio of students to school-based mental health professionals by 14% at school districts selected for the pilot program. The pilot program was considered so successful that Wisconsin became one of 22 states to be awarded another five-year grant, which started in January.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration says the grant “no longer effectuates the best interest of the federal government.”

DPI Superintendent Jill Underly called the decision to eliminate the grant indefensible at a time when communities have been pleading for help serving student mental health needs.

“These funds ― which Wisconsin used to make meaningful change for our schools ― were helping districts and our higher education partners develop new mental health professionals, providing a career opportunity for our current high schoolers,” Underly said. “This action takes resources away from Wisconsin and disrupts the success efforts we’ve made to ensure qualified individuals are serving our kids.”

At this point, there’s no indication that staff hired through the 2020 pilot grant, which ends September 30, will be let go, but the canceled 2024 grant will invariably mean the loss of momentum in the state’s ability to reach underserved communities.

Now, DPI hopes that its historic proposal to invest more than $300 million in school mental health programs over the 2025-27 biennium makes its way through the Republican-controlled Legislature. The provision would invest in the now-stymied school-based mental health services program, expand aid for mental health care costs, invest in alcohol and drug abuse programs, add more mental health training across school staff, and extend peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs to middle schools.

Success, however, is considered unlikely based on previous years. DPI had requested $278 million over the 2023-25 biennium, but received about $74 million in mental health services across K-12 Wisconsin schools. The 2021-23 biennial budget allocated less than half that amount ― $44 million ― into youth mental health services.

Should the Legislature continue its trend of budgeting far less of DPI’s proposed requests, the responsibility will fall to school districts to find the funding. Community members may see more school referendums on ballots in future years, for example.

“Kids don’t get a chance to do-over their school experience while the federal government recalibrates its political agenda,” Underly said. “Federal funds are a critical part of our infrastructure, and these disruptions need to stop.”

This story has been updated to add new information.

Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her X (Twitter) profile at @natalie_eilbert.