Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is again joining a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education as it continues trying to end federal grants for school-based mental health services. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Tong joined a lawsuit about these same grants one year ago. That’s when the Department of Education initially discontinued the grants, arguing they reflected DEI priorities that fell afoul of the Trump administration’s new interpretation of civil rights law. Tong and the other plaintiffs won an injunction in December to get the money back, but the department only awarded six months’ worth of funding and added new “hoops” for grantees to jump through, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office. “Trump is taking money meant for our kids to bankroll ballrooms and tax breaks for billionaires. We’re going to keep fighting for as long as it takes to stop this cruelty and chaos,” Tong said in a statement. The money came from the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress passed after the shooting that year at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. A five-year, $3 million grant went to the University of Connecticut to support 25 social work graduate students providing mental health services in schools in Hartford, New Britain, Waterbury and Vernon. According to the attorney general’s office, the grant money — which totaled $1 billion nationwide — has allowed for the hiring of 1,300 mental health professionals and supported 775,000 K-12 students across the country. Participating high-need schools have seen suicide rates drop by half and a reduction in other problematic behaviors. Students have also reported shorter wait-times for services. Despite the ongoing injunction, the Department of Education is still trying to end those grants permanently — but under a different section of administrative law.  The first time around, the department tried to use 34 C.F.R. § 75.253 to say it had the power to “discontinue” the grants. A federal appeals court ruled the government hadn’t followed the correct procedure, forcing it to release some of the frozen funds. Now, the department is saying it can still “terminate” the grants under 2 C.F.R. § 200.340, despite the previous decision. “The Department does not believe that a decision to terminate a grant agreement, as distinguished from a decision not to continue a multi-year grant agreement into a subsequent calendar year, is affected by the Court’s December 19, 2025 injunction,” the department wrote in a motion it filed in the case June 10. A hearing on whether “termination” and “discontinuation” are meaningfully distinct is set for July 24. According to the motion, if the court agrees the injunction does not cover the termination statute, the department could begin ending grants as early as July 31. That’s why the plaintiffs, including Tong, have sued again, this time arguing the government cannot use § 200.340 to terminate grants, either. By filing a new lawsuit “protectively,” the plaintiffs hope to “secure a new injunction” regardless of what happens with the government’s June 10 motion. The new injunction would presumably prevent the Department of Education from following through on its plans to start terminating grants on July 31. The Department of Education did not return a request for comment in time for publication. ...read more read less