rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/mental-health-care-for-our-kids?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-mental-health-care-for-our-kids' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Race Forward Action https://actionnetwork.org/groups/rfaction https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg Students across the country are carrying more stress, fear, grief, anxiety, depression, and trauma into school every day. Public schools need more counselors, psychologists, social workers, and mental health support funding to meet this moment. Instead, Congress and the Trump administration are moving in the wrong direction. Last year, Congress cut nearly $1 billion from school-based mental health grants that helped high-need districts recruit and train mental health professionals. Those grants supported counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and other trained adults who help students before a crisis becomes an emergency. Now, the administration and its allies are targeting roughly $2 billion more from children’s behavioral health systems. These cuts would weaken support in schools, clinics, and community programs that serve children and families already facing enormous pressure. LGBTQ+ students are facing rollbacks of protections, attacks on affirming care, and the shutdown of the 988 LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program, a crisis support option that connected young people to trained counselors. Black students are being harmed by attacks on equity and culturally responsive support. Immigrant students are living with the trauma of raids, detention threats, family separation, and fear. Students with disabilities already face service delays and underfunding, and mental health cuts would make it even harder for schools to meet their needs. Public schools serve every child. They cannot do that work without the resources to support students’ emotional, behavioral, and mental health. Congress must reject cuts to children’s mental health funding, restore and expand school-based mental health grants, protect crisis services for LGBTQ+ youth, and ensure federal funding reaches the students and communities with the greatest need. Click “Start Writing” to tell your members of Congress to fund, don’t cut, mental health care for our kids. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/mental-health-care-for-our-kids