URGENT – Public comment due August 18, 2025 11:59 pm ET
The Department of Education has issued two notices of proposed rulemaking that would make schools that provide inclusive mental health resources to students ineligible for federal funding. These proposed changes appear designed to block transgender students, students of color, and student activists from receiving the quality mental health care they deserve in school. They also function to suppress students’ ability to express dissent and hold government leaders accountable.
Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program
This proposed rule would add four requirements for any school entity applying for grant funding to hire mental health care professionals. Paragraph (d) in this rule requires block schools who receive funding from “promoting or endorsing: (1) gender ideology, (2) political activism, (3) racial stereotyping, or (4) hostile environments for students of particular races.” These are thinly veiled attempts to prevent schools from providing queer and trans-inclusive or culturally responsive mental health care, as well as stifle expressions of dissent against the administration.
Comments are due by August 18 at 11:59 pm ET. Anonymous commenting is not available.
Additional Notes About Comments
- Anyone can submit a comment: individuals, organizations, or their representatives.
- Legal arguments are valuable, but telling stories of how people have been and are harmed by a lack of responsive mental health care is equally important.
- Whether or not these comments are taken seriously by the federal government, it is critical that our voices are heard and that we make it clear that we are paying attention and that we do not want this.
- All comments slow down the administration from achieving its goals.
What should the comment say?
- Clarify that your comment opposes paragraph (d) in the proposed program requirements.
- Call for the removal of paragraph (d) from the program requirements in the final rule.
- Support inclusive (culturally-responsive, gender & trans-inclusive) mental health care approaches.
- Reference evidence or studies showing the importance of cultural responsiveness and identity affirmation in caring for youth.
- Oppose the curtailment of free political expression in schools.
- Schools are places of learning and expression that should not be silenced by the government.
- Personalize the comment to your organization, the community you represent, and/or the issues you work on.
Sample letter
While you are both welcome and encouraged to draft a unique and specific comment, feel free to copy and paste any or all of this text onto your own letterhead and submit it:
Dear Ms. Carr,
[We / I] offer the following comment regarding the Department of Education’s proposed rule, “Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program” (MHSP) published in the Federal Register. Specifically, [we/I] write in opposition to paragraph (d) of the proposed program requirements, which would prohibit funds from being used to promote or endorse “(1) gender ideology, (2) political activism, (3) racial stereotyping, or (4) hostile environments for students of particular races” and urge for this paragraph’s removal in the final rule because it is inconsistent with students’ and employees’ right to free speech under the First Amendment, based on undefined and vague terms, and contrary to effective mental health policies.
[INSERT PERSONAL STORY, EVIDENCE OF IMPORTANCE OF CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE OR GENDER AFFIRMING SCHOOL SUPPORTS, OR HARMS CAUSED BY LACK OF RESPONSIVE MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN SCHOOLS]
Schools should be safe spaces where all students, including LGBTQ+ students as well as Indigenous, Black, Latine, and other students of color are able to freely express themselves and access the resources they need to thrive. To achieve this, it is critical that schools are able to hire mental health service professionals that will adequately support and address student needs. But paragraph (d) of the proposed program requirements would steer federal funding to programs that significantly restrict the ability of students to freely communicate with mental health professionals. It would also prevent mental health professionals from addressing issues that students face in a way that resonates with their cultural, gender, or political identity—leading to increased isolation and disconnectedness that pushed already marginalized students out of schools and builds mistrust and resentment of educational institutions. That is neither consistent with the authorizing statute, nor how taxpayer money should be spent.
Additionally, the definition of “credentialed” arbitrarily excludes many qualified mental health professionals from being hired or providing services under this program. [I/we] urge the Department to revise the definition of “credentialed” to include a wider range of mental health professionals, such as school counselors, social workers, and psychologists; remove paragraph (d) from program requirements; and if finalized, implement the program in a manner that ensures that high-need schools that typically serve Black, Latine, and low-income students have the resources they need to increase youth mental wellness in schools.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
This toolkit is adapted from the Advancement Project