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The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors cleared the way to expand student mental health services, allowing 35 additional schools to become service sites.
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The decision comes as California begins a new legal fight with the U.S. Department of Education over the Trump administration’s latest effort to cut school mental health grants.
“We went through a lot of hurdles — we had to go through with the federal government,” Supervisor Patrick Kennedy said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“We persevered, and because of it, hundreds and hundreds of children are going to be served with mental health services that they wouldn’t otherwise get if it wasn’t for the County of Sacramento.”
Kennedy did not specify which federal hurdles he was referring to, but the county documents indicate the 35 additional school sites had already received federal Health Resources and Services Administration approval before the board authorized them to be added to the program.
With the supervisors’ approval, the number of authorized school-based service sites increases from 33 to 68. The move allows schools including Bannon Creek, Natomas High, Rosa Parks Elementary, Mira Loma High and Norwood Junior High to become service sites. Other approved locations are in Galt, Rancho Cordova and Rio Linda.
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The program is designed to provide students with access to early mental health assessments, counseling and referrals at participating schools, while not adding any immediate costs to the county or requiring more money in the current budget, according to county staff.
In an agenda report to the board, health services director Timothy Lutz said the program has expanded since 2020 “to meet the increasing behavioral health needs of students in Sacramento County.”
Four days before the county vote, California and 14 other states sued the federal Department of Education over the administration’s renewed attempt to end the grants under the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program — the programs created and expanded by Congress in response to the school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas.
The case extends a legal fight that began in 2025, when California and other plaintiff states stopped the Education Department from ending the grants. For California, the grants represented roughly $200 million for education agencies and universities.
“The Trump Administration is once again trying to take critical mental health funding away from the schools that need it most,” said Attorney General Bonta in a statement. “Congress made clear that students across the country deserve access to these services. That’s why we’re going back to court.”
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