The Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) was informed Tuesday, April 29, that a federal grant worth $11.3 million will be canceled, according to student board member Aidan Light.
The grant, which was approved in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, came after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 elementary schoolers and two teachers. Despite gun control being a widely divisive topic, lawmakers from both parties agreed to allocate $1 billion nationwide for school-based mental health support.
However, the Trump administration has indicated that the grant conflicts with its policy priorities and plans to restructure how such funding is distributed.
“The Department plans to re-envision and re-compete its mental health program funds to more effectively support students’ behavioral health needs,” according to the notice.
If the grant is fully rescinded at the end of the 2024-25 school year, CVUSD will lose approximately $4.9 million in funding that currently supports mental health staff serving over 16,000 students across 27 campuses.
“The growth of CVUSD’s mental health and wellness programming has served a critical need these past few years,” said CVUSD Board President Lisa Powell. “It’s with great dismay that I received the news of this federal funding cut. I will advocate – and hope others will too – for reconsideration of a decision that hurts students.”
Districts may submit documentation and arguments for reconsideration within 30 days of the notice, according to letters from the Department of Education sent to various districts.
In addition to the grant loss, CVUSD could face the loss of another $9.1 million in annual funding, depending on whether the administration moves forward with proposals to dismantle the Department of Education and reduce federal funding for public schools.
Student Impact
Many students depend on the very services now at risk. For some, these services are their only accessible form of mental health support.
“For the past two years, the Wellness Center has been the place that’s helped me stay on track both mentally and academically,” senior Jose Hernandez said. “When I started going during my sophomore year, I didn’t care about anything. But the mentors taught me how to develop a growth mindset and keep pushing, even through hard times.”
Hernandez said he’s visited the Wellness Center over 50 times throughout high school, for both scheduled sessions and walk-ins.
To mitigate the impact, the district has explored alternative funding options, including California’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), which helps schools expand access to mental health care by charging their insurance for services.
“If you don’t take care of your mental health, everything else falls apart,” Hernandez said.
