Michigan districts appeal after judge upholds restrictions on safety funds

School districts are appealing a court ruling upholding new state restrictions on $321 million in safety and mental health funds
The new law requires schools to comply in a state investigation and waive attorney-client privilege in the event of a mass casualty
School districts must agree before the end of the year to a new law to get millions of dollars in funding for safety and mental health, or opt out.

A group of Michigan school districts have filed an emergency appeal after a judge upheld new state rules limiting which districts can qualify for millions of dollars in safety and mental health funds.

The appeal was filed on Friday, two days after Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel upheld the legality of a controversial addition this year to the law appropriating these funds. It requires districts to waive their attorney-client privileges and comply with any state investigation if a mass-casualty event occurs on campus or opt out by Dec. 30. So far, hundreds of schools have opted in.

Patel’s ruling was in response to a coalition of local school districts, intermediate school districts, and school officials that pushed back against the state in two lawsuits, with the Macomb Intermediate School District leading the plaintiffs suing the state, Michigan Department of Education and state superintendent.

The school districts argued that the new provision was vague, unconstitutional and forces schools to choose between protecting students and preserving legal privileges in exchange for funding.

The Court of Claims failed to properly address the issue of constitutionality of the law “requiring school officials to choose whether to accept the funding with little to no idea what privileges they might be relinquishing and when, or to decline critical school funding,” the schools’ lawyers wrote in the appeal.

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The Michigan Department of Education has distributed millions of dollars in state funds to school districts for safety and mental health services since the 2021 shooting at Oxford High School that left four people dead and seven people injured.

The current state budget provides $321 million for school safety and mental health funding. That includes $214 million for per-student mental health and safety grants, $53.5 million for school resource officers and safety dogs and $53.5 million for mental health staffing.

Patel’s Dec. 17 ruling meant school districts had until Dec. 30 to decide whether they will opt in to the provisions for the state safety and mental health funds or opt out to preserve their legal rights.

So far, 983 schools and districts have opted in, according to Michigan Department of Education spokesperson Bob Wheaton. Among them are 466 traditional public school districts, 39 intermediate school districts, 217 public school academies, 260 nonpublic schools and the Michigan School for the Deaf. Excluding the nonpublic schools, the opt-in rate is running at about 82%.

Those that have opted out include two nonpublic schools, five traditional public school districts and two intermediate school districts, Wheaton said.

Patel’s ruling, in part, stated: “Plaintiffs maintain that requiring a district to waive any privilege in the course of an investigation is not germane to the purpose of the statute. The State contends it is a necessary condition to ensure full cooperation with the comprehensive investigation, which in turn will ensure true progress in preventing future mass casualty events.”

But in the appeal, lawyers for the school districts wrote the new requirement harms school districts on an institutional and individual level.

“At the institutional level, Plaintiffs-Appellants serve hundreds of thousands of students and depend on Section 31aa funds to hire counselors, implement security upgrades, and conduct safety training,” lawyers for the school districts wrote.”Faced with this dilemma, effective December 30, 2025, school officials will be compelled to forgo this funding, directly harming Schools’ ability to protect students and staff.”

“At the individual level, school officials and staff … are now under a credible threat of criminal exposure for seeking advice of counsel through good-faith, privileged communications or otherwise invoking ‘any privilege’ that might have been unknowingly waived in exchange for Section 31aa funds.”

Officials from the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, where the other case was filed, ordered a stay of the case last week pending the final outcome of all appeals in state court, according to an order provided by attorney Scott R. Eldridge of Miller Canfield.