Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

 Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 15 attorneys general announced the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the coalition in its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education’s unlawful discontinuation of previously approved mental health grants for K-12 schools. 

In the order issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected the Department of Education’s motion to set aside the deadline, chosen by the department, to issue grant continuation decisions and sent the matter back to the district court for compliance with the court order. The latest order explains that the department is not entitled to this relief because the discontinuation notices at issue were not tailored to specific grants and the department did not provide a sufficiently reasoned explanation for its decision to cancel the individual grants. 

“Mental health professionals in schools meet a critical need in Illinois and across the country. Ensuring that students have access to support is essential to keeping schools and communities safe,” Raoul said. “I appreciate the court’s decision, and I will continue to stand with my colleagues to oppose the administration’s illegal actions that come at the expense of Illinois students and communities.” 

Since last June, Raoul and the coalition have been fighting the department’s abrupt and unlawful decision to discontinue previously approved grants that are used to provide 14,000 mental health professionals in U.S. schools, including those in low-income and rural communities. The department sent grantees boilerplate notices stating that their projects no longer aligned with the Trump administration’s new priorities, which the federal government never publicly announced. 

Raoul and the attorneys general won three rulings at the district court level, including a summary judgment order in December. The latest ruling is the coalition’s second win in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Despite the coalition’s multiple court wins, the department has failed to deliver the bulk of the funds that schools and other grantees had counted on to help address the youth mental health crisis. Just one of the many programs the administration attempted to cancel has provided mental health services for more than 50,000 students in Illinois since the program’s outset.  

Joining Raoul in in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.