Washington leads lawsuit seeking to preserve school mental-health grants threatened by federal termination
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown led a multistate lawsuit July 10 seeking to prevent the U.S. Department of Education from terminating school mental-health grants that the state said were scheduled to end at the close of July.
Brown filed the action with 14 other attorneys general, creating a 15-attorney-general coalition when Washington is included. The lawsuit is intended to stop the proposed grant termination, not to announce that the coalition has already won a court ruling.
Washington schools and universities could lose more than $20 million if the grants are ended, according to the state Attorney General’s Office. The figure is a projection of funding at risk, rather than a confirmed loss.
What the states are challenging
The suit seeks to preserve school mental-health grants in the face of the Department of Education’s planned termination. Washington said the federal government intended to end the grants at the end of July 2026.
The timing made the litigation an effort to intervene before the stated deadline. The approved source material does not establish that the grants had already been terminated in Washington, and the planned end-of-July action remained the development being challenged when the state announced the case.
Washington’s release also said the federal action was being taken in defiance of a court order. That is the state’s characterization of the planned termination. The available packet does not identify the court, describe the order’s terms or provide details about the underlying litigation associated with that order.
As a result, the lawsuit should be understood as a request for judicial intervention over the grants, rather than a final determination that the funding must continue. The packet also does not establish whether a court had issued a final ruling in the states’ case.
Funding at stake for Washington institutions
The state identified Washington schools and universities as the institutions facing the potential loss. It estimated the exposure at more than $20 million if the federal grants are terminated.
The grants are for school mental-health services, making the dispute relevant to institutions that rely on the funding for school-based mental-health work. The Attorney General’s Office did not provide a school-by-school or university-by-university accounting of the projected amount in the approved source material.
Nor does the packet specify how many Washington schools, universities, students or individual programs could be affected. It does not identify particular grant recipients or describe individual services that could lose support. The available information supports the statewide funding estimate but not a more detailed breakdown.
That distinction matters because more than $20 million is an estimate of what Washington institutions could lose if the planned termination proceeds. It is not an accounting of money already withdrawn, and it does not establish that every Washington school or university receives these grants.
What comes next
The immediate date identified by the state was the end of July 2026, when the federal government was said to be planning to terminate the grants. The coalition’s July 10 filing sought to prevent that action before it took effect.
No later hearing date, decision date or additional court deadline is provided in the approved source packet. The central unresolved question is whether the Department of Education will be allowed to proceed with the planned termination while the legal dispute continues.
For Washington, the case combines a challenge to the proposed federal grant action with a stated financial risk for schools and universities. The state’s announcement places that risk above $20 million, while leaving unresolved the outcome of the lawsuit and the ultimate availability of the grant funding.
Sources
- Washington State leads lawsuit to prevent Department of Education’s cuts to school mental health grants, Washington State Attorney General's Office