States accuse feds of defying court order on school mental health grant cuts

Fifteen states asked a federal judge in Washington to block the Education Department from canceling school mental health grants again, after Judge Kymberly Evanson issued a temporary restraining order in July following a December injunction that already ordered the grants reinstated. The department's attorney told the court there is no final termination plan, only a request for clarification about whether cutting grants would violate the existing injunction.

States' counsel disagreed, pointing to termination notices already sent to grantees and guidance posted on the department's own website as evidence a plan exists in practice. The department countered that its own published guidance doesn't bind it to anything.

The grants, created by Congress in 2018 and 2020 after school shootings, funded mental health staff in low-income schools; states say the terminations are already disrupting hiring and services as the school year begins, regardless of the litigation's outcome. Evanson took the matter under submission.

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