Department of Education pulls $7 million grant from LPS to provide mental health services

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Lincoln Public Schools announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Education is pulling funding for a grant aimed at supporting school-based mental health services within the district.

LPS said it was originally awarded the five-year $7 million competitive grant under the Biden Administration in 2023. The grant will now be discontinued at the end of the calendar year on Dec. 31.

Interim superintendent John Skretta said the district had used the money to hire 18 elementary counselor positions last year and increase mental health supports within the district.

“We were pledging those dollars to support, ensuring that every elementary has a school counselor in place,” Skretta said. “Those counselors provide a range of vital supports to our students.”

LPS also provided a 25% match to the grant, hiring six more counselors on top of that.

“We already had skin in the game from a fiscal standpoint in addition to our programming commitments,” Skretta said. “While this news was not expected this week, we know that there’s always a horizon of implementation followed by sunsetting of a grant award.”

Since the news came ahead of the next school year’s budget, Skretta said the district has time to adjust and continue funding the current program through the 2025-2026 year and potentially beyond.

“It’s just going to be embraced by our district as a means of figuring out, putting our heads together and being great critical thinkers about how we can continue to support our students,” Skretta said.

Skretta said there won’t be any immediate changes to positions right now as the notice came after the Nebraska required reduction in force deadline of April 15. He adds that LPS’ longstanding goal to provide a counselor in every school remains unchanged.

“Regardless of funding commitments from the federal government, we are and remain committed to ensuring access to these incredible counselors for whose service we are extremely grateful on a daily basis,” Skretta said.

LPS was not the only school district to learn its grant had been discontinued. Skretta said there appears to be a “broad swath” of notifications to districts across the nation, and that school-based mental health grant funding doesn’t seem to be consistent with priorities of the current administration.

Skretta said the district will be working with its contact at the Department of Education as well as “any available avenue of appeal” to get a continuance on the funding.

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