School counselors and mental health professionals could lose their funding by the end of July if the Trump administration follows through on plans to terminate the grants, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown warned in announcing a new federal lawsuit on Friday.

Brown joined attorneys general from 14 other states in filing the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington state, seeking to block the U.S. Department of Education from cutting the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program.

Congress created the program in 2022 after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. The $1 billion in funding supports school districts and universities hiring and training counselors, psychologists and social workers.

Within its first year, the program funded mental and behavioral health services for nearly 775,000 students nationwide. A total of 339 entities received five-year awards.

Brown said the Education Department "is trying to eliminate grants that Maryland schools rely on to provide critical mental health and counseling services for our children," according to a statement from his office. Which specific Maryland school districts hold grants under this program has not been publicly identified. MCPS, which serves more than 155,000 students, has not confirmed whether it is a direct grantee.

The administration first moved to halt the grants in April 2025, telling grantees their programs conflicted with administration priorities. A coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general sued in July 2025, and a court ruled in their favor with a December 2025 order directing the administration to stop the discontinuation. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to overturn that injunction.

Despite the court order, the states allege in their new complaint that the Education Department "unlawfully discontinued the grants by applying new, unpublished priorities pursuant to an internal directive." The complaint alleges the administration intends to terminate the grants by the end of July 2026.

The case, Washington v. U.S. Department of Education (No. 2:26-cv-02409), was filed to address what the states call gaps in the earlier court order. The 15 states in the suit are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

New MCPS student board member Leul Dawit, a rising junior at Northwood High School who took his seat Monday, July 7, has listed expanding student mental health initiatives as a platform priority for the 2026–27 school year. The MCPS Board of Education holds its next Board Business Meeting on Thursday, July 16, at 4 p.m. at 15 W. Gude Drive, Suite 100, Rockville.