How States and Communities Can Strengthen Student Mental Health Supports

A new guide from the Nation­al Cen­ter for School Men­tal Health at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land School of Med­i­cine out­lines steps state and local lead­ers can take to strength­en school-based services. 

Fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, From Cri­sis to Action: A Guide for State and Local Lead­ers on Youth Men­tal Health in Schools draws on research and imple­men­ta­tion expe­ri­ence from com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try. It rec­om­mends three pil­lars for strength­en­ing men­tal health sup­ports in schools: 

a tiered sys­tem of services, a lay­ered work­force andsus­tain­able funding. 

“For many young peo­ple, school is often one of the only places young peo­ple may access sup­port,” said Ilene Berman, direc­tor of Evi­dence-Based Prac­tice at the Foundation.

“Evi­dence high­light­ed in this guide shows that schools are most effec­tive when men­tal health sup­ports are orga­nized into coor­di­nat­ed sys­tems that help iden­ti­fy con­cerns ear­ly and con­nect stu­dents with the right lev­el of care.”

Jill H. Bohnenkamp, PhD, MEd, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of child and ado­les­cent psy­chi­a­try, is co-direc­tor of the Nation­al Cen­ter for School Men­tal Health, which was found­ed in 1995.

“We are thrilled to announce the release of From Cri­sis to Action: A Guide for State and Local Lead­ers on Youth Men­tal Health in Schools, which pro­vides resources and prac­ti­cal exam­ples for school sys­tems to build a proac­tive, sus­tain­able com­pre­hen­sive school men­tal health sys­tem,” Bohnenkamp said. ​“The guide helps school sys­tems to move beyond cri­sis man­age­ment and toward last­ing well-being for every student.”

Key Strate­gies for State and Local Leaders

The Nation­al Cen­ter for School Men­tal Health works with states, dis­tricts and com­mu­ni­ties nation­wide to improve how schools sup­port stu­dent well-being through research, train­ing and tools such as the SHAPE Sys­tem. The cen­ter also con­venes nation­al con­ver­sa­tions on strength­en­ing school men­tal health sys­tems. From Cri­sis to Action draws on real exam­ples to demon­strate what this can look like in practice.

Build Stronger Sys­tems of Sup­port for Students

Com­mu­ni­ties are build­ing sys­tems that empha­size pre­ven­tion, ear­ly inter­ven­tion and coor­di­nat­ed inten­sive care. Exam­ples such as Florida’s statewide resilien­cy stan­dards, Seattle’s BRISC mod­el and Kentucky’s region­al ser­vice net­works show how schools can deliv­er the right lev­el of sup­port at the right time. These efforts work best when inte­grat­ed with fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ty providers and data sys­tems to ensure seam­less access to care for all.

Expand the School Men­tal Health Workforce

Build­ing lay­ered work­force mod­els expands who deliv­ers men­tal health care, includ­ing edu­ca­tors, para­pro­fes­sion­als, com­mu­ni­ty health work­ers and licensed clin­i­cians. Ini­tia­tives in places such as New Mex­i­co, Cal­i­for­nia and Nebras­ka demon­strate how train­ing, new roles and work­force pipelines can extend capac­i­ty while improv­ing cul­tur­al respon­sive­ness and access. This approach reduces reliance on a lim­it­ed num­ber of spe­cial­ists and cre­ates more sus­tain­able, com­mu­ni­ty-con­nect­ed sys­tems of care.

Secure Sus­tain­able Funding

Com­bin­ing Med­ic­aid, state fund­ing, local rev­enue and phil­an­thropic invest­ments has helped move away from short-term grants and toward more durable financ­ing. Exam­ples from Ore­gon, Texas and Cal­i­for­nia show how pol­i­cy changes and cross-sec­tor part­ner­ships can gen­er­ate ongo­ing fund­ing streams that sup­port ser­vices and infra­struc­ture. Sus­tained invest­ment is crit­i­cal to main­tain­ing work­force capac­i­ty and ensur­ing that men­tal health sup­ports con­tin­ue to remain avail­able to all students.

Why Long-Term Solu­tions Matter

Across the coun­try, edu­ca­tors report that stu­dents are expe­ri­enc­ing more anx­i­ety, depres­sion and oth­er men­tal health chal­lenges. Nation­al data show that more than 1 in 3 high school stu­dents report per­sis­tent sad­ness or hope­less­ness, and sui­cide is the sec­ond lead­ing cause of death among youth ages 10–24.

When men­tal health sup­ports are con­nect­ed to goals such as improv­ing atten­dance, strength­en­ing school cli­mate and help­ing stu­dents suc­ceed aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, they are more effec­tive and become part of how schools oper­ate every day.

For addi­tion­al data and nation­al trends, explore Casey’s overview of youth men­tal health sta­tis­tics.