California secured a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from discontinuing roughly $200 million in school mental health grant funding awarded to dozens of schools and universities in California, including the Santa Clara County Office of Education and California State University East Bay.

Congress created the Mental Health Professional Demonstration Grant Program in 2018 following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 14 students and three staff members, and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program in 2020. The $1 billion in funding supports schools in providing mental health services for elementary and secondary schools throughout the country — including many in low-income and rural communities — with the goal of permanently bringing 14,000 additional mental health professionals into the nation’s schools.

In April, the U.S. Department of Education alerted California and 15 other states that the program grant funding would be discontinued at the end of the year because the department determined that the programs were “not in the best interest of the federal government” and conflict with the Trump administration’s priorities — alleging that they violate civil rights law, do not prioritize “merit, fairness and excellence in education,” undermine the well-being of students or constitute an inappropriate use of federal funds.

In June, the impacted states formed a multistate coalition and filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education in a multi-state coalition. The states’ lawsuit warned that discontinuing the grant funding would irreparably harm students, leaving many rural and low-income schools without mental health providers or services critical to students’ safety and well-being.

The October court order rejects the Department of Education’s motion to dismiss the case and blocks the administration from implementing the discontinuation against nearly 50 grantees across the country while the lawsuit continues.

“The court’s decision requires the Trump Administration’s Department of Education to provide thousands of students in our state a fair shot at accessing crucial mental health services that support their success and wellbeing, while our litigation continues,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement Tuesday. “Instead of fulfilling its mission of promoting educational excellence and equity for all students, the Department of Education is using baseless and unlawful excuses to rip funding from projects that provide necessary mental health services — especially in our low-income and rural communities. The court’s ruling brings us one step closer to ensuring the Department of Education follows the law when it makes mental health grant award decisions in the future.”