Sponsors (32)
Official title: To increase the recruitment and retention of school-based mental health services providers by low-income local educational agencies.
Introduced November 19, 2025 by Judy Chu · Last progress November 19, 2025
The bill aims to expand and professionalize the school mental‑health workforce—improving student access through training, hiring incentives, and targeted grants—but does so with significant federal cost, eligibility and administrative constraints that may leave some needy districts, programs, and experienced providers out or slow implementation.
Students in low‑income and high‑need school districts will gain increased access to school‑based mental health providers because grants fund training, placement, and hiring partnerships for districts and graduate programs.
Graduate students in school psychology, counseling, and social work will have clearer pathways to licensure, more supervised field placements, expanded training slots, and financial supports (tuition credits/salary) improving job‑readiness and capacity.
Early‑career school‑based mental health providers can reduce or eliminate federal student loan burdens through up to five years of principal and interest payments and concurrent credit toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, improving recruitment and retention in low‑income LEAs.
Taxpayers face significant new federal costs — a recurring authorized $200M/year plus potential large loan‑repayment outlays (payments up to $200,000 per person and open appropriations authority) — increasing federal spending risk.
Narrow eligibility rules, competitive award processes, and prioritization limits (20% poverty threshold, HEA definition narrowing, staff‑to‑student caps, State/geographic prioritization) could exclude needy districts, small or nontraditional programs, and create uneven access to funds.
Extensive reporting, evaluation, and administrative tasks (grant reporting, verification of employment, directory maintenance, adjudications) increase burden on LEAs and grantees, diverting staff time from direct services and potentially delaying payments.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes competitive grants to create school‑based mental health training/placement partnerships and a loan‑repayment program for providers who serve five years in low‑income LEAs.
Creates a federal grant and loan-repayment program to increase the number of school-based mental health providers in low-income school districts by funding partnerships between eligible graduate programs and low-income LEAs to train and place counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other school-based mental health staff. Establishes competitive five-year renewable grants, a loan repayment benefit for providers who commit to five years in eligible LEAs, and a study to develop a formula to identify regions with shortages of school-based mental health providers.