Rural Schools Lose Vital Mental Health Support

In many rural parts of the country, schools are struggling to provide adequate mental health support for their students. In some areas, there is only one mental health professional for every 1, 100 students. This lack of resources is especially concerning given the high rates of depression, anxiety, and trauma among young people in these communities. Recently, the Trump administration made a decision that could make this situation even worse. They chose to cancel grants that were funding school-based mental health programs across the country. These grants were part of a larger effort to address gun violence and improve mental health support in schools, especially in rural areas. The grants were designed to help schools hire more psychologists, counselors, and social workers. Under the Biden administration, the focus was on increasing the number of providers from diverse backgrounds and communities directly served by the school districts. However, the Trump administration took issue with aspects of the grant programs that touched on race, saying they were harmful to students. One of the people affected by this decision is Hennessey Lustica, who has been overseeing grant-funded efforts to train and hire more school mental health professionals in the Finger Lakes region of New York. She received a letter in April informing her that her grant had been canceled. The letter claimed that her work violated civil rights law, but did not specify how. Lustica plans to appeal the decision and rejects the characterization of her work. She says that the programs she oversees have had a positive impact on students in her district and that the decision to cancel the grants will have a devastating effect on kids who need mental health support. The grants supported programs in districts across the country, from California to Alabama to Wisconsin. In each of these places, schools were using the funding to hire and retain mental health staff, as well as to train the next generation of mental health professionals. The decision to cancel the grants has been met with criticism from educators and mental health professionals. They argue that the grants were funding desperately needed services and that the decision to cancel them will put millions of children at risk.