At Friend Public School in central Oklahoma, Bailey Smith is setting up her new classroom before students return at the end of the summer. In August, Smith will start her fourth year as a teacher. It's the job she planned for, but it's also one she considered leaving.
"I was like, 'I don't know if I'm going to make it. It's not what I had expected it to be,'" she said.
Smith said she didn't feel like she had the skills to help every student in her classroom excel, and she started feeling burnt out.
Then, she got accepted into a master's program at the University of Oklahoma and was chosen to be part of its first PRIME cohort. The opportunity changed the trajectory of her teaching career.
The "Project Rural Innovation for Mental Health Enhancement," or PRIME program, was started by OU researchers with a $5.6 million federal grant. The program was designed to recruit and train future school counselors, social workers and behavior analysts while covering their graduate tuition, fees and program costs.
In exchange, graduates agreed to serve two years in a rural, high-need school for every year they received funding.
Smith said she got the tools and support she needed to make a difference in some of her students' lives, including one student with autism who had difficulty communicating verbally.
"He was just miserable every day at school," she said. "And PRIME, my supervisor, she came in, and she taught me all these skills for teaching language to him, for teaching and how to meet his needs. And he just, he thrived."
But at the end of December, the grant that paid for Smith's degree is likely going away, two years earlier than expected.
Federal cuts
The federal grant funding OU's PRIME program was part of broader cuts to school mental health made by the Trump administration earlier this spring.
Federal officials announced they were going to stop paying out $1 billion in federal grants awarded to school districts through the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The bill, among other things, poured federal dollars into schools to address rising concerns about a student mental health crisis.
About 260 school districts in nearly every state received a portion of the $1 billion in the form of five-year grants, which were paid out in installments.
The National Association of School Psychologists has been monitoring which programs received letters of non-continuation. Director of Policy and Advocacy Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach said more than 200 mental health training programs across the country were alerted they would no longer be funded.
In a letter to OU, the U.S. Department of Education said affected programs "reflect the prior Administration's priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current Administration."
"These kids, these schools and these communities finally had something," Vaillancourt Strobach said. "And now they feel like it's being yanked away."
The non-continuation letter did not specify how OU's program clashed with Trump's initiatives.
According to the same letter, the department's mission is to "promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access."
Vaillancourt Strobach said there's a misconception that adding mental health support to schools means just giving students therapy. She said proper behavioral health care is essential to increasing student learning, improving student outcomes, reducing chronic absenteeism and equipping students for life after school.
"None of that can happen if we're not addressing student wellness," she said.
Programs that received non-continuation letters have been allowed to file a request for reconsideration. Vaillancourt Strobach said due to the vague nature of the non-continuation letters' reasoning, several letters have been sent back asking for more information.
"How did you, one, make the decision to cancel these grants?" Vaillancourt Strobach said. "Two, what criteria are you going to use to evaluate someone's appeal? And three, you keep saying … they're envisioning these grants to align with this administration's priorities. … We want to know, what does that mean?"
The department did not respond to a request for comment from StateImpact.
OU's PRIME program filed an appeal for reconsideration but has not heard back.
Mental health in Oklahoma schools
OU's PRIME program aimed to address a shortage of mental health providers in Oklahoma schools. According to an analysis by StateImpact, 53 of Oklahoma schools considered "rural" by the National Center for Education Statistics have no counselor.
In Oklahoma, the school counselor-to-student ratio is 398:1, according to data from 2022. According to the American School Counselor Association, the ideal ratio is no more than 250:1. However, only two states — New Hampshire and Vermont — meet this threshold.
Studies have shown students who can access school counselors have better academic and behavioral outcomes and are better prepared for college or a career. And the stakes in Oklahoma are high — a report from the Rural School and Community Trust places the state 4th in the nation for educational needs in rural districts.
Brittany Hott, who oversees PRIME, said so far, the program has graduated 16 providers and has 40 students.
"Some of the schools that we have been able to staff had critical shortages for more than three years," she said.
Before news of the non-continuation reached Hott's desk, the program had already accepted its next round of students — 10 counselors, 12 behavior analysts and five social workers. The PRIME funding had a long waitlist. For behavior analysts alone, there were 56 applications for 12 slots.
She said after being notified the funding would go away in December, only five future behavior analysts, seven counselors and one social worker have decided to stay with the program.
"It's a hard conversation to say, 'You're well qualified. We really hope that you will still come. We can provide funding until December,'" Hott said. "And so many say, 'I can't do this.'"
Cian Brown is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the Professional Counseling Program in the College of Education at OU. He said while the graduate program will continue to train future mental health service providers, losing the PRIME grant makes that path less feasible for students.
"What's being lost is providing these affordable opportunities for students who are interested to come back and serve their communities, the affordability and accessibility to receive education and quality training to go back and provide those services," Brown said. "... You're losing out on an opportunity to support these students and their communities."
Some students are left in the lurch mid-program — like Anna Olsen, who is set to finish her school counseling master's degree next spring. She says without the grant, she never would have considered going to school to be a counselor.
"I really didn't know where I was going with my life prior to hearing about it," Olsen said. "And so this program, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, this is exactly the culmination of what I feel like I would be good at.'"
To pay for her last semester of tuition, Olsen got a research position. She's also getting a part-time job, which she'll have to squeeze in between classwork and an internship.
She said she'll make it work, but she's still disappointed and angry her peers won't get the same opportunities, and rural Oklahoma schools will miss out on needed professionals.
Without the funding, she worries the most dedicated people won't choose to become school counselors. The cost of the degree might not be worth the limited pay.
"The funding being cut directly correlates to just fewer trained and licensed counselors in public schools, specifically public schools in rural Oklahoma, where mental health, the kids really need it in those areas," Olsen said.
StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership of Oklahoma's public radio stations which relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.
Copyright 2025 KGOU
