Groundbreaking Lawsuit Challenges Federal Government’s Discontinuation of School Mental Health Grant

One of the schools in McKinleyville Union School District Is Dows Prairie. [Photo from the MUSD webpage]

Public Counsel, Morrison Foerster, and the California Tribal Families Coalition have filed a groundbreaking lawsuit with national implications on behalf of McKinleyville Unified School District challenging the federal government’s decision not to continue funding a $7 million, five-year school mental health grant.

The lawsuit alleges the federal government abruptly and unlawfully announced its intent to discontinue the grant, flatly violating regulations that require the government to base continuation decisions solely on grantee performance. Instead, the government — without even conducting a performance review — cited only shifting political priorities as the basis for its decision. The lawsuit asks the court to order the government to comply with its own regulations. A victory could open the door for hundreds of other districts affected by similar decisions to seek relief.

With just one counselor for its 850 students, McKinleyville — located in remote Humboldt County — relied on the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant to hire two more professionals, in addition to developing evidence-based policies and practices.

“This funding is a life-or-death issue for the kids in our rural corner of California,” said Julie Giannini-Previde, the district superintendent. “This funding could change hundreds of lives by providing mental health services to students who literally can’t get it anywhere else.”

The entire nation is facing a youth mental health crisis — with more than one in seven youth ages 6 to 17 experiencing a mental health disorder. At the same time, more than 50% of young people who need it have difficulty accessing mental health care.

The problem is particularly acute in Humboldt County, where 58% of youth have experienced traumatic events like abuse or homelessness more than once. By high school, more than 20% have considered suicide. Humboldt County also has a significant Native population, whose members have been subjected to intergenerational trauma that has often been the direct result of federal policies.

With few providers and a six-hour round trip to the nearest city, school-based care is the only option for many of Humboldt County’s youth. Paying for care is also a major challenge, as

roughly 60% of county students come from lower-income families.

“The Administration’s decision denies children in rural, high-poverty communities the services they need to meaningfully access education,” said Amanda Mangaser Savage, Strategic Litigation Counsel at Public Counsel. “It treats these children — many of whom come from Native communities harmed for generations by the federal government — as disposable.”

The suit, McKinleyville Union School District v. U.S. Department of Education, was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

“We filed this lawsuit to ensure that the Department of Education complies with the law and its own regulations before discontinuing critical mental health funding for children in poor rural communities,” said David Wiener of Morrison & Foerster LLP.  “The Department’s unilateral change to its ‘priorities’ is not a lawful basis for discontinuing this much-needed funding for vulnerable students in Humboldt County.”

The district will seek an injunction to rescind the non-continuation decision and to require going forward that any decisions be based solely on grantee performance, as the law requires. A coalition of state attorneys general filed a similar suit earlier this year on behalf of multiple states.

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