Alamogordo NM
7-05-2025 9:01am

NM AG Joins Lawsuit to Stop Cuts to Mental Health Programs in Schools

NM AG Joins Lawsuit to Stop Cuts to Mental Health Programs in Schools AlamogordoTownNews.org

The Attorney General of the State of New Mexico, Raúl Torrez joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general in filing a federal lawsuit to stop the U.S. Department of Education from cutting critical mental health funding for K-12 students—funding that was secured through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, legislation spearheaded by New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich.

“It is one of our greatest responsibilities to protect the mental health and safety of our children,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “This funding was secured by Congress—thanks in large part to the leadership of Senator Heinrich—to address the trauma and mental health challenges students face after school shootings and during an ongoing youth mental health crisis. The Department’s decision to abruptly eliminate this funding is not only reckless, but it also defies the law and threatens to dismantle programs that are saving lives.”

Following the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 with broad support. The law provided $1 billion to expand access to school-based mental health services, aiming to permanently place 14,000 mental health professionals in schools serving high-need and rural communities. These efforts are already showing results: according to the National Association of School Psychologists, the programs supported by this funding have reduced suicide risk by 50%, improved school attendance, and increased staff-student engagement.

Despite this success, on April 29, 2025, the Department of Education issued boilerplate notices discontinuing the grants based on vague and unsupported claims of conflict with current policy priorities. The coalition lawsuit argues this violates federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act and statutory protections under the Safer Communities Act.

New Mexico and other plaintiff states are asking the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to block the cuts and require the Department to honor its commitments.

Joining New Mexico in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

Complaint

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7-05-2025 9:57am

the trump regime is always looking for ways to ****** the rug out from under deserving citizens - so they can stabilize the precarious situation that our poor deserving billionaires find themselves in.
another shout out to our elected state office holders for going to bat for the everyday people of new mexico!

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7-05-2025 2:43pm

If Senator Martin Heinrich spear headed this legislation, that spear must've ended up in a cow somewhere around Clovis, because it never made it to D.C.
According to the Congressional record, the bill was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio, and co-sponsored by Senator Rick Scott, both of Florida.
The grant program for school mental health programs was a demonstration program, not an on going program.
Although funding was secured through 9/30/26, for parts of the grants, with most parts expiring at the end of this September, the wording was MAY be granted, NOT SHALL be granted.
So although the funding was appropriated, it was not allocated on a set in stone basis the way our AG seems to think.

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