McKinleyville district sues Trump administration after mental health grant revoked
The McKinleyville Union School District has sued the Trump administration, alleging the federal government unlawfully discontinued a $7 million grant it was awarded last year to provide mental health services to students.
Filed on behalf of the district against the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon by law firms Public Counsel and Morrison Foerster, as well as the California Tribal Families Coalition, the lawsuit asks the court to reverse the action, alleging it was done in “direct violation of Congress’s statutory directives and DOE’s own established processes, and without any consideration of McKinleyville’s performance under the grant.”
“Defendants announced just four months into McKinleyville’s award period that they would not continue McKinleyville’s funding beyond one year,” the suit states. “McKinleyville therefore needs the Court’s intervention to compel Defendants’ compliance with statutory requirements and safeguard the Humboldt County community.”
Nationwide, the Trump administration revoked about $1 billion in grants for mental health services in public schools, including those provided by the School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) Services Grant Program, which supplied funding to the McKinleyville district.
“This lawsuit is going to be seeking an injunction, forcing the federal government to comply with its own regulations and not to leave these kids behind, just because of its shifting political priorities,” said Amanda Mangaser Savage, an attorney with the nonprofit Public Counsel firm during an Oct. 23 press conference held over Zoom with McKinleyville Superintendent Julie Giannini-Previde and Trinidad Rancheria Social Services Director Angie Sunderberg.
The McKinleyville Union School District applied to the SBMH program on behalf of the Northern Humboldt School Based Mental Health Consortium, which included two nearby districts, and received the five-year grant in October of 2024, which it used to hire two additional mental health professionals and develop policies and practices to better support students.
Giannini-Previde said that McKinleyville Union, along with other grant recipients, received a letter from the department on April 29 stating it would be canceling the remaining funds on Dec. 31, leaving the district with a more than $5 million loss. According to the lawsuit, the district did not receive any assessments of its programs and the first annual performance report is not due until February. The DOE is required by federal regulations to determine the continuation of funding grants solely based on grantee performance, Savage said.
Giannini-Previde emphasized the importance of access to mental health resources in a rural area, saying many students rely on schools for counseling and other forms of support. In Humboldt County, where 58 percent of the region’s young residents have experienced multiple instances of trauma and 60 percent live in low-income household, Giannini-Previde said such assistance can be “a matter of life and death.”
“Being able to provide these services within our schools was just a gift,” Giannini-Previde said. “We did everything that the federal government asked of us, and now our funding’s gone, and we’re looking at a cliff of having to fire all of these folks who provide these really vital services to our kids.”
The Trinidad Rancheria, which has been collaborating with nearby school districts to help provide mental health support to Indigenous youths, currently has two therapists who are already overburdened due to the limited resources in the community, Sundberg said, noting intergenerational trauma makes it is even more essential for Native students to have support in school that meets their individualized needs.
“If we go through the county, it takes two months if we can get through the door,” Sundberg said. “Whether that is going to be a person who our kids are able to connect with is even less of an opportunity. To have the in-school opportunity to have our kids be seen is literally the way that our kids are able to access mental health [services].”
The DOE announced it would have new applications available for grant funding, but McKinleyville Union does not qualify due to the number of students. The grant also only provides up to $1.7 million over four years. Without the SBMH grant, the district’s mental health services will be cut entirely, according to Giannini-Previde.
“What that’s going to mean for them is that they’re on waiting lists, that they may or may not get in to see anybody when they need somebody, that in a crisis situation, there’s not necessarily going to be somebody available for them,” the superintendent said. “More importantly, even if they do get access to service, it’s not gonna be somebody they know and trust, who they see every single day while they’re at school.”
Mental health services in schools provide for students and faculty in many ways, from offering support after tragic events to giving teachers the tools they need in the classroom if a student is struggling.
If the lawsuit is successful, it could have monumental implications for the 260 schools across 49 states that previously received funding through the SBMH and MHSP grants, according to Public Counsel.
“This is really a life-altering change for students going through some critical, pivotal moments in their social-emotional development in their education,” Savage said. “You don’t get to rewind from here.”
Griffin Mancuso (he/him) is a freelance journalist based in Eureka. He is passionate about uplifting the stories of local communities and wildlife education and preservation. More of his work can be found at griffinmancuso.wordpress.com.
This article appears in Halloween.