Attorney General Tong Secures Two Court Orders to Protect Connecticut Education Funding

Press Releases

10/28/2025

Attorney General Tong Secures Two Court Orders to Protect Connecticut Education Funding

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong this week secured two court orders in two separate lawsuits blocking the Trump Administration from unlawful cuts harming Connecticut students.

“Trump is arbitrarily and lawlessly seizing taxpayer dollars meant to help Connecticut families and kids. We’re suing, we’re winning, and we’re going to keep fighting for as long as it takes to protect our state and our families, and to stop Trump from illegally funneling our funds to his vanity projects and tax breaks for billionaires,” said Attorney General Tong.

Mental Health Funding

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from illegally cutting $1 billion in congressionally approved funding for K-12 mental health programs after a coalition of 16 state attorneys general, including Attorney General Tong, filed suit in June.

In Connecticut, these cuts impacted more than $3 million to support social workers in Hartford, New Britain, Vernon and Waterbury schools through 2029.

On Oct. 21, U.S. District Court Judge Kymberly Evanson rejected the U.S. Department of Education’s motion to dismiss the case. In a preliminary injunction issued Monday she said the department appears to have acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, violating the Administrative Procedure Act.

Comprehensive Sexual Health Education

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction late Monday blocking the Trump administration from defunding teen reproductive and sexual health education programs over language that affirms all young peoples’ gender identities.

The ruling is the latest in a lawsuit filed by 16 states and the District of Columbia, including Connecticut. The states sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in September alleging the administration was denying young people services for cruel and purely political reasons with no regard for the law.

The Trump Administration’s threat put at risk more than $1.6 million in funding awarded to Connecticut through the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP). Connecticut has used PREP funding to support evidence-based educational programming that helps reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually-transmitted infections. Historically, the PREP program has served an annual average of 800-1,200 at-risk youth in Connecticut.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

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