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(ABC 6 News) — A new effort at the Minnesota Capitol is aiming to backfill a federal grant for Rochester Public Schools that would have helped the district support students’ mental health.
The money would have helped staff at RPS earn licenses to provide students with counseling and other types of mental health support, but the Trump administration canceled the grant, saying it didn’t align with their goals.
Related: Rochester Public Schools’ mental health grant terminated
The district had been receiving a $1.9 million federal grant to support mental health, which is something Supt. Kent Pekel said has been a need for a long time.
“We’ve got a mental health crisis among young people. And the project was going to overtime grow about 30 new licensed people to provide mental health support,” said Supt. Pekel.
At the start of of the new year, the grant was terminated by the federal government because of what they said were shifting priorities between the last administration and the current one.
Supt. Pekel claimed one of the reasons the grant was canceled was due to the program giving preference to people with diverse backgrounds.
Now, a local lawmaker is pushing to get that funding back.
Related: Sen. Boldon introduces bill to backfill canceled RPS federal education grant
“It’s an important program that is going to serve a real need in our community and I wanted to see if we can fill that gap,” said Sen. Liz Boldon.
While Supt. Pekel said he is thankful for Sen. Boldon’s efforts, he doesn’t think the bill will work out.
“I would be very surprised if it passes. I think we are assuming given the very tight budgets that exist at the state level, that it’s a long shot,” he said.
However, Supt. Pekel added the district is currently in the process of figuring out new ways to give more mental health support to students in the future.
“Will we look for other ways to do it? Yes, we definitely will, but this was a pretty big set back for us,” he said.
The bill was most recently heard in the Minnesota Senate’s Education Finance Committee, and it will be considered when they put their final budget together.
For Related Stories: Mental health Rochester Rochester Public Schools