A federal judge has permanently reinstated two Education Department school-based mental-health grant programs after ruling the department’s April cancellations unlawful. U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson found the department acted arbitrarily by discontinuing multi-year awards approved for fiscal years 2022–24 and criticized the agency for politicizing grant decisions. The reinstatement affects grants in 16 plaintiff states and restores funding that officials said had brought more mental-health professionals into K–12 schools. The programs targeted by the ruling included the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program, which had supported counselors, social workers and psychologists and partnerships with higher-education mental-health training programs. The Education Department’s July policy shift had narrowed spending to school psychologists and added ideological content restrictions, prompting litigation and operational disruption for grantees. For higher-education leaders, the decision matters because the grants funded partnerships that expanded training pipelines and clinical placements for graduate students in counseling, social work and school psychology. Restoring the programs preserves an important revenue and training channel for colleges of education and counseling programs as they respond to K–12 demand for licensed mental-health professionals.