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School Mental Health Grants Reopened

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October 30, 2025

Written by Sasha Pudelski, Director, Advocacy at AASA, The School Superintendents Association and member of the AESA advocacy team

UPDATE October 30, 2025

It is our understanding the new grant competition will continue despite an October 27th ruling that requires the Department of Education to reinstate, for now, the original SBMH and MHSP grants that were discontinued in April. Not all grantees are eligible to have their grants reinstated, only those that were party to a lawsuit from 16 states filed in June.

 

Original Post October 6, 2025

The U.S. Department of Education released revised priorities for both the School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMH) Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP) Demonstration Grant Program.

Superintendents may recall that 2/3 of the prior awardees were notified in April that their grants would be discontinued because their grants did not align with the Trump Administration’s priorities.

Previously, these grants could be used to increase access to school psychologists, school counselors, school social workers, and other school mental health professionals. However, the grants may now only be used to increase access to school psychologists in high need school districts.  A total of $270 million is available to support a range of efforts to address workforce shortages in school psychology and increase access to comprehensive services.

Applications for both awards are due October 29th, 2025.  The applications reference a preapplication presentation, but that has not yet been posted on the Department’s website.

School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMH) Grant Program (Application available here)
$180 million is available to recruit, hire, and retain credentialed school psychologists in high-need districts. As stated in the application, the priorities for SBMH are:
  • Increase the number of credentialed school psychologists in high-need LEAs.
  • Expand early intervention and intensive mental health services.
  • Build local capacity to sustain services beyond the life of the grant.
  • Support respecialization of related professionals into school psychology (competitive preference).
  • Incentivize service in rural communities (competitive preference).
Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP) Demonstration Grant Program (Application here)

$90 million is available to strengthen the pipeline of school psychology graduate candidates through partnerships between SEAs/LEAs and graduate training programs. MHSP Priorities are:

  • Train and place graduate candidates into high-need LEAs (SEA-led).
  • Expand LEAs’ ability to host and support graduate candidates.
  • Increase the number of credentialed school psychologists available to provide early intervention and intensive services.
Note: MHSP applicants must establish a school-based mental health partnership (e.g., with universities or state-recognized training entities) and submit an MOU within six months of award.
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