Rochester Public Schools is losing a $1.9 million federal grant intended to support mental health services in the district.
The U.S. Department of Education notified the district on April 29 that the multi-year grant would be terminated at the end of this year.
The grant was awarded to the district in 2023 as a way to train and license staff already working for the district to provide students with counseling and other forms of mental health services. The funding covered tuition for a social work program at Winona State University, as well as substitute pay for staff as they completed internships for their degrees.
“The termination of this grant is a big step backward,” RPS Superintendent Kent Pekel wrote in a letter Tuesday. “Thousands of students who might have received counseling and support to address challenges to their mental health, such as depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide, will not receive that support unless the U.S. Department of Education reconsiders its termination of this vitally important initiative.”
In terminating the grant, the department said the district’s efforts “violate the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law; conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; undermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help; or constitute an inappropriate use of federal funds.”
The letter appears to be directed at the district’s emphasis on supporting staff of color, who the district said accounts for about two-thirds of the participants in the programs. The Trump administration has made it a priority to withhold funds from programs and institutions that include language related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
While Pekel acknowledged the grant seeks to “increase the number of mental health professionals in our school system who are underrepresented when compared to the demographic composition of the student body we serve,” he noted that it does not “exclude people from other backgrounds and life experiences from participating.”
The district, he said, plans to file an appeal asking the department to reconsider the loss of funding.
