Federal funding cut a program that would place mental health professionals in rural schools

A program that helps put mental health professionals in south central Washington schools is losing federal funding and will be discontinued.

Heritage University, which helped run the program, said rural schools could be left without mental health support. 

Heritage will continue its two graduate programs — a Master of Social Work (MSW) and a Master in Mental Health Counseling (MMHC) — without the program that would have placed their students as interns in schools. 

“This was the first mental health program in our region,” said Kellie Ketchuma, a first-year MMHC student. “Most of us in the program are from here and planned to stay and serve our community. Losing that school-based training hit all of us hard.”

Educational Service District 105 and Heritage University were notified on April 29 that grants funded through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 will be cut. The federal government is cutting $1 billion for school mental health programs, which includes nearly $5 million that would have gone to help rural districts such as Wapato, Toppenish and Wahluke. 

According to a report by the Washington Post, Madi Biedermann, a spokesperson for the U.S. The Department of Education, said some grants were being misused and not helping students or mental health professionals in schools. Her comments did not specifically mention the program in Washington state.

The grants helped ESD 105 and Heritage University launch the Yakima Valley Grow Your Own Consortium, which included schools in Yakima and Grant counties. The program was designed not only to combat shortages in behavioral health staffing, but also to build a pipeline of professionals equipped to serve communities where mental health needs are tied to generational poverty, trauma and limited access to care.

Many of these schools already operate with student-to-counselor ratios exceeding 1,000-to-1, which is above the national recommendation by the American School Counselor Association of 250-to-1. Some districts have no school social workers at all.

“The loss of these grants will have lasting, negative impacts on our schools and communities,” said Emily Nelson, executive director of student support at ESD 105. “We already face significant delays and barriers in youth access to behavioral health services, and these grants were designed to address those challenges.”

As of spring 2025, 17 MSW students are completing internships, and 18 MMHC students were set to begin theirs this August.

Ketchum said the cohort learned of the funding cut in an email sent on May 1, just days before they were expected to receive final school placement announcements.

“We’d been asking every weekend class, ‘Are the placements ready?’” she said. “Then all of a sudden, it was gone. It created stress, anxiety and honestly a lot of anger. Because this isn’t just about us — it’s about the kids.”

Students in many of the affected schools already face challenges such as homelessness, substance use, trauma and low literacy. In some districts, many of the students are in Spanish-speaking households. The Heritage program includes a Spanish-language certificate so counselors can offer bilingual services.

According to the 2022 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey, more than 57% of eighth grade students in the consortium’s participating districts reported anxiety related to family job loss. Without school-based mental health professionals, those challenges often fall to teachers, administrators and staff.

“The biggest group of folks who are going to be impacted are the K-12 students and the administrators of the schools that are trying to support them,” said Cory Hodge, vice president of student affairs at Heritage. “It’s those small, rural communities that will lose the most.”

The grants affect only the school-based placements, not the program as a whole.  

“Our program is still alive,” Ketchum said. “We’re self-funded, and our professors have said they’re committed to helping us finish what we started. But the placement experience was supposed to be the heart of our training and the most needed part for local schools.”

Heritage University and ESD 105 are appealing the federal decision and seeking support from private donors. University officials said they are also exploring legal options.

“We remain committed to this work,” said Andrew Sund, president of Heritage University, in a press release. “Our students and schools deserve the same access to care as better-funded regions.”

Ketchum said despite the setback, she is focused on the mission she started with giving back to her community.

“We are resilient,” she said. “We’re going to keep going, because the need hasn’t gone away.”

Reneé Diaz may be contacted at [email protected]. Collaborative reporting by The Wenatchee World, NWPB and WSU’s Murrow College of Communication Newsroom Fellowship.