06 May Grant That Could Have Boosted WCCUSD Mental Health Support Cut by Trump Administration
(Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)
By Samantha Kennedy
West Contra Costa Unified School District’s $4.2 million grant that helps fund multicultural diversity in school mental health professionals is the latest to be cut by the Trump administration as the district grapples with a nationwide school counselor shortage.
Project (Re)Defining FAMILISMO, a five-year district partnership with San Jose University and Saint Mary’s College of California, would have received funding from the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant to support 24 graduate school counselors in training at high-needs schools over the next five years.
Instead, the U.S. Department of Education told the district that the grant was “not aligned with the current goals of the federal administration,” according to interim Superintendent Kim Moses.
“This is just the beginning of what we’re going to see from this administration,” said board member Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy at Wednesday’s meeting. “I want to call it out for what it is — atrocious. I’m ashamed this is the kind of work they’re putting forward.”
The school board accepted $608,822 of the grant at the meeting, but the rest — around $3.5 million — won’t be disbursed over the next several years.
According to Moses, the district is one of around two dozen agencies nationwide that received the grant. The estimated $19 million in total awards also funded projects in the Marin County Office of Education and at California State University, East Bay.
A separate $1 billion from a Biden-era federal grant program meant to help fund mental health professionals in districts across the country is also set to be discontinued, the department said on the same day WCCUSD received the notification about its grant.
The need for mental health staff nationwide has increased since COVID-19, especially in the district. The district’s student-to-counselor ratio is 804 to 1, according to the program’s description, which is more than three times the American School Counselor Association’s recommendation.
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“Instead of having five years of an opportunity to build a workforce and increase mental health support and counseling department, that time has been reduced to this current calendar year,” said Moses.
In addition, around 40% of district juniors said in 2023 that they were experiencing chronic sadness, and one-third of both seventh and ninth graders said the same. The findings prompted the district to offer more mental health support through a partnership with Care Solace, which offers mental health counseling.
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Moses said the district, which is also dealing with a multi-year budget deficit and other staffing shortages, will have to find other ways to fill the gaps.
“We hope to continue the work in another way if we aren’t able to retain these funds,” said Moses. “However, the impact is great in that the work that had been planned to move forward will be limited.”
Moses said the district is also considering appealing the decision.
“This is a total bummer,” said board president Leslie Reckler. “Total bummer.”
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