Education Department reopens school mental health grants with a focus on psychologists

The U.S. Department of Education is reopening applications for two major school mental health programs, according to reporting from K-12 Dive. Districts will again be able to seek funding through the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant, with an updated emphasis on growing the pipeline of school psychologists in high-need communities.

What’s coming back

The two programs help districts recruit, train, place, and retain school-based mental health professionals. After pausing the competitions earlier this year, the Department has reissued priorities and is inviting new applications. K-12 Dive notes that stakeholders welcomed the reopening while raising questions about how the new criteria center school psychology roles relative to counselors and social workers. The overarching goal remains the same: expand access to timely, school-embedded services so students can get support before challenges escalate.

Why the emphasis on psychologists

Districts continue to face persistent shortages of credentialed mental health staff. Many systems report student-to-provider ratios that exceed professional recommendations, which can lengthen wait times, delay evaluations, and push more referrals into already strained community clinics. Focusing on psychologists is intended to strengthen assessment capacity and multidisciplinary care planning, especially for students with complex learning, behavioral, or trauma-related needs.

What district leaders should do now

• Quantify local need. Gather current caseloads, assessment backlogs, and referral data to demonstrate unmet demand and to show how additional staff would change outcomes.

• Build higher-ed partnerships. Coordinate with university programs to create practicum and internship pipelines that can convert to full-time hires after graduation.

• Design for retention. Outline mentoring, supervision, and workload strategies that help new hires stay beyond the grant period.

• Align roles across a team. Clarify how psychologists, counselors, social workers, and nurses will collaborate on prevention, early intervention, and crisis response.

Why this is good news

Reopening these grants gives districts a path to stabilize hiring plans that were thrown off by the earlier pause. It also signals a continued federal commitment to school-based behavioral health, which is where many students first access care. For behavioral health leaders, this is an opportunity to align district workflows with evidence-based practices, strengthen referral handoffs to community providers, and formalize data sharing and outcomes tracking.

Bottom line

With applications reopening, districts can refocus on building sustainable school mental health teams and closing access gaps. For education leaders and community partners, the key will be submitting proposals that pair a clear plan for staffing psychologists with a comprehensive, team-based model that serves the whole child, from prevention through specialized support.