Milwaukee Public Schools wins $5 million federal grant to expand student mental health staffing and training pipeline

Grant focuses on expanding access to school psychologists through higher-education partnerships

Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has been awarded a $5 million federal grant aimed at strengthening student mental health supports, with an emphasis on increasing access to school psychologists. District officials said the funding will be used to expand a training and hiring pipeline in partnership with Alverno College and the University of Wisconsin system.

The district has framed the grant as an effort to increase capacity for school-based mental health services at a time when schools nationwide report rising demand for counseling, behavioral supports, and crisis response. MPS also reported that, since 2020, it has improved its mental health staffing ratio from one mental health professional per 175 students to one per 145.

How the funding fits into MPS’s existing mental health staffing strategy

The new federal dollars arrive as MPS continues to build a workforce approach that blends recruitment, training, and retention. District communications and prior program descriptions have highlighted a model in which graduate training programs and school districts coordinate to reduce barriers to entering school psychology and related pupil-services roles.

In the Milwaukee area, Alverno College has separately received federal support in recent years for school psychologist training initiatives designed to increase the number of practitioners prepared for K-12 settings in southeastern Wisconsin, including bilingual preparation. While that program is distinct from the MPS grant announcement, it reflects an established pattern of using federal funds to address workforce shortages through educator preparation partnerships.

• Goal: increase the availability of qualified school psychologists serving MPS students
• Mechanism: partnerships intended to strengthen training pathways and hiring pipelines
• Near-term impact: additional capacity to deliver and coordinate student mental health services in schools

National recognition and service delivery capacity

MPS has previously received national recognition for its school psychological services through the National Association of School Psychologists’ Excellence in School Psychology Services program. In February 2024, MPS reported it had earned a national designation for service quality and that its Office of Psychological Services included more than 160 school psychologists, supported by supervisory staff. In 2025, the district reported that its Office of Psychological Services had achieved the program’s highest designation, described as “Exemplary.”

MPS has positioned the grant as a way to build on existing progress and increase mental health support availability for students.

Why federal school mental health grants are under scrutiny nationally

The MPS award comes amid shifting federal policy and legal disputes surrounding some school mental health grant programs. In 2025, federal actions affecting certain mental health workforce grants drew challenges from states and led to court rulings related to whether funds should be released. Separately, Wisconsin officials have publicly addressed expected reductions in some federal school mental health funding streams tied to statewide initiatives.

For MPS, the practical question will be how quickly the district can translate grant funding into staffing increases, training placements, and service expansion—especially given the time required to prepare licensed school psychologists. The district has not, in its public description of the award, released a full implementation timeline or target number of additional practitioners supported by the $5 million grant.