Overview

• Sixteen Democratic-led states filed federal lawsuits this week naming the Department of Education and Secretary Linda McMahon as defendants.
• They challenge the April decision to cut $1 billion in grants from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which funded school-based mental health services.
• The complaints argue the department breached the Administrative Procedure Act and congressional appropriations by rescinding DEI-linked contracts without proper rulemaking.
• In the first year of funding, grantees hired about 1,300 mental health professionals and served nearly 775,000 students under the Uvalde-inspired program.
• Plaintiffs are seeking injunctions to block the terminations and reinstate the grants, and the Education Department has yet to issue a substantive public response.