The way things are going in Washington, D.C., Marin educators should be thankful that our schools are in line for a five-year $9.9 million U.S. Department of Education grant for youth mental health services.

The fate of both federal grants and the department appear politically precarious, to say the least.

The grant to the Marin County Office of Education will support many local programs already in place. Some were started and paid for with one-time COVID-19 relief funds. The new grant will save that important work and staffing from budget cuts due to the end of the pandemic funding.

Marin schools and other agencies are facing the end of the federal pandemic-relief funding and are confronted by difficult decisions.

Some programs, started and maintained with that funding, are still needed, but local funding isn’t enough to keep them funded.

In recent years, there has been considerable attention and services directed to the mental health needs of students and school campuses have been in the forefront of meeting those needs.

The social and educational challenges caused by the pandemic raised those stakes.

In addition, since COVID-19 Marin schools have been seeing higher levels of chronic absenteeism.

The grant will fund positions needed to provide outreach to students and families to help address the reasons for youth missing school and putting them on a track to bolster attendance.

Marin high schools have stepped forward to address mental health challenges facing youth. From striving to intercede and prevent suicide to helping students with anxieties and pressures from academic expectations to ramifications of the pandemic, schools have established drop-in help offices.

These cost money to provide and school districts have struggled to keep their programs funded. But the possible results from not making that investment could prove costlier.

The five-year grant is a welcome helping hand to maintain those services and expand them to effectively address challenges such as chronic absenteeism. Some of the money will go toward maintaining alternative education programs, among them the county’s Community School in San Rafael.

As the county Superintendent of Schools John Carroll puts it, access to these services is “crucial for well-being and success of our youth.”

The grant is a significant taxpayer investment. The county schools office and school board should track the progress of these grants toward meeting the goals of the county’s application.

The impact of these grants on the lives of our community’s youth will prove the value of this investment of money, time and talents and provide proof to Washington of the importance of such grants.

The need exceeds the funding we have available to recognize, address and meet the mental health challenges facing our students

The grant is an investment in their future.