A federal judge ruled the U.S. Department of Education acted unlawfully by abruptly discontinuing grants to fund extra mental health professionals in K-12 schools, the office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said.

Raoul and a coalition of 16 attorneys general filed a lawsuit in July arguing the education department violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it told grantees in April that it would discontinue the mental health grants program because they conflicted with the Trump administration’s new priorities, the announcement from Raoul’s office said.

As part of the decision, the two sides will meet and agree on a timeline for the department to make lawful grant continuation decisions, the attorney general’s office said.

“I applaud this ruling that ensures mental health professionals stay in schools in Illinois and across the country. These services not only support our students, but they keep our schools and communities safe,” Raoul said in the statement announcing the ruling. “I will continue to stand beside my colleagues to oppose illegal actions that directly impact our communities.”

After the deaths of 19 students and two teachers during a 2023 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Congress appropriated $1 billion to permanently bring 14,000 mental health professionals into the schools that needed it the most.

Since then, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), reported grantees served nearly 775,000 students and hired nearly 1,300 school mental health professionals during the first year of funding, the attorney general’s office said.

The Department of Education attempted to discontinue the grants that provided ”essential services" from school-based mental health professionals for countless students throughout Illinois,” Raoul’s office said.

Illinois joined California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin in filing the lawsuit.