On April 29, 2025 the current federal Administration announced that congressionally allocated funds to support the work of mental health professionals in public schools will prematurely cease on December 31, 2025. The programs being defunded are the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program which were created to prepare and place 14,000 mental health professionals in schools in response to the student mental health crisis in the US. We at Lucy Daniels Center (LDC) were extremely dismayed to learn that school districts across the country would no longer receive this promised support, as we are on the frontlines of witnessing the children and school systems that suffer when vital mental health resources are cut. When we remove mental health professionals from the school system, we miss opportunities to help children experiencing challenges before those challenges become crises.
This bill and subsequent funding via the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program has received bipartisan support over the past 3 years – North Carolina showed an impressive awareness of and response to the children’s worsening mental health crisis, understanding the importance of offering school-based resources because this accessibility reduces barriers. As early intervention specialists we work very closely with our colleagues in mainstream education; along with parents, they are often the first people to recognize that a child needs additional supports and help to put them in place. When we remove mental health professionals from the school system, we miss opportunities to help children experiencing challenges before those challenges become crises. An August 2024 poll from the American Psychiatric Association found that “84% of Americans believe school staff play a crucial role in identifying signs of mental health issues in students.” Removing trained mental health professionals from schools will have a negative effect on students, staff, and families across the country.
The current Administration’s reasoning for cutting this vital funding was stated as “for programs that reflect the prior Administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current Administration…under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help.” Therapy and mental health intervention is not a one size fits all business; it is essential to ensure that therapists can make connections with and gain the trust of every child in need of their help. This absolutely means being trained in the effects of generational trauma including racism and poverty, having an understanding of different belief and cultural systems, and being able to speak multiple languages. Engaging clinicians with diverse backgrounds, lived experiences, and educational backgrounds is a key part of building a team that can truly serve everybody appropriately. Seeking to employ clinicians who look like, sound like, and understand the background of the children they are being hired to serve is not discrimination, it is the most basic way to set your program up for success. When we only hire one type of therapist we only help one type of child – and that is simply not an option. Every child counts, every child has the potential to do amazing things, and every child deserves a chance to succeed.
Per the 2025 NC Child Health Report Card, in NC today more than 50% of children 3-17 reported difficulties in accessing mental health treatment last year – losing this funding in schools will cause this number to rise further. NC school psychologists and social workers already have almost 4 times the number of students under their care than the recommended amount. We need to bolster their ranks, not deplete them. NC Child has concluded, based on research and data, that “access to school-based mental health support and services has never been more important for ensuring that our children grow up to lead healthy, fulfilling lives”. It is clear that this administration’s defunding of school-based mental health services is not based in any thoughtful analysis and is, in fact, contrary to what the experts are recommending is best for the children of North Carolina. On behalf of the children who will suffer as a result of impulsive and detrimental de-funding, we must be the voice of advocacy.
LDC is acutely aware of the lack of mental health resources for our children. Agencies like ours do what they can. The Lucy Daniels Center provides direct treatment to over 500 children per year – soon to be over 1500 with planned expansion – but it is still a drop in the bucket of the need. Many of our patients come to us because their teacher or other school staff member has identified the need for intervention; the earlier we can work with a child in need, the better their outcome. Overstretching school staff will invariably mean that children fall through the cracks and we will miss the optimal time to intervene.
Ultimately – the politicization of healthcare is a losing game for everyone. This is the case for the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program, and it would be the case for potential restrictions on eligibility for Medicaid insurance. We say that our future is in the hands of our children – let’s give them the opportunity to develop the emotional resiliency necessary to cope with this challenging world.
