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  • California looks to the health system to sustain mental health funds in schools

    California looks to the health system to sustain mental health funds in schools


    Credit: Photo: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    To create an education system that has stable funds for mental health, California educators and leaders are turning to the health system and launching a statewide behavioral health initiative to fill funding gaps in fluctuating, sometimes unpredictable school budgets.

    “The health systems and the education systems are not bound together successfully enough to make sure we engage in both prevention and treatment,” said David Gordon, a commissioner at the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. “That’s particularly true for the most underserved communities.”

    Funding for mental health in California public schools typically has come from general education budgets, a reason funds have never been stable. As the need for more mental health services and specialists skyrockets, administrators and experts are turning to the health system to better serve needs that existing education budgets just can’t cover. 

    Schools bridge some gaps by placing nurses, social workers, school counselors and psychologists on campuses, but there’s never enough money to fully meet student mental health needs. Without a built-in, statewide system to fund mental health in schools, districts are left to figure it out themselves. 

    “We’re so used to trying to provide external funding to fund us to some sort of equitable level for every student,” said Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors. “It’s never been the general fund will cover us — it’s just sort of baked into the cake.”

    It’s been that way since at least the late 1980s, when Whitson began her education career, she said.

    The Local Control Funding Formula, legislation that changed the way education was funded in California, created more funds for mental health and “a more holistic view and review of schools,” Whitson said. “But if there’s not enough money to go around, then school district administrators need to make very hard decisions.”

    If districts have to rely on general fund money for mental health providers, it creates competition with funding for teachers and education programs, Whitson said. If budgets had more funds specifically for mental health, it would mean more money for education. 

    If we piecemeal it like it’s been, then we’re always trying to find money through categorical programs or grant funding.

    Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors

    California doesn’t mandate districts to provide school counselors, social workers, nurses or psychologists, but it is encouraged. Some experts say mandates could ensure there would be mental health specialists at every school. But that goes against the idea of local control, Whitson said, which allows districts to make decisions based on their community’s needs and resources. 

    Grants for mental health have helped, but it’s not sustainable, Gordon said. School districts will receive grants for a few years or even less, and when those dollars run out, the services or mental health specialists do too if districts don’t have money to keep them going. 

    Similarly, districts turned to pandemic relief dollars to boost staffing for school counselors, social workers, psychologists and nurses, but those funds expired in September. 

    Nonprofits and community organizations have stepped in to help fill needs at lower costs, put therapists on school campuses, and taken over doing burdensome paperwork. But if the services aren’t free to school districts, then most money for mental health has to come out of the education budget. 

    Blending two systems

    Gordon credits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Children Youth and Behavioral Health Initiative for beginning to merge the health and education system. The goal for two major systems to come together is reachable, Gordon said, “but it will take a lot of coordination and collaboration.”

    A key component of the behavioral health initiative is to support partnerships between Medi-Cal managed care plans and schools to increase access for children receiving Medi-Cal — nearly 5.7 million kids in 2022. Another goal is to increase access to early interventions and preventative mental and behavioral health care.

    The behavioral health initiative was part of the Budget Act of 2021 and the governor’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health. The California Department of Health Care Services will invest $4.7 billion over multiple years in youth behavioral services.

    According to the master plan, more than 240,000 children cope with depression, and 66% don’t receive treatment. Suicide rates among 10-18-year-olds increased by 20% in 2019-2020.

    Efforts to implement the behavioral health initiative started in January 2022. So far, hundreds of millions of dollars in funding have been disbursed to dozens of organizations for training and retention of providers, loan repayments and scholarships to increase providers in underserved areas.

    But some of the funding is distributed as grants and won’t last long, Whitson said. 

    “I think it’s important to consider: How do we sustain this? A lot of programs come in as temporary programs, so seed money,” Whitson said. “We look at sustainable money as Medi-Cal a lot of times.”

    The amount of money school districts can bill to Medi-Cal recently increased, thanks to new legislation. The California Education Code was updated in January after AB-2058 passed, allowing districts to bill Medi-Cal for mental health services provided by school counselors.

    A 2018 statewide count of school counselors tallied about 11,000, Whitson said. She estimates there are about 14,000 now. 

    “School counselors are one of the biggest billing forces in the state. It should be bringing in quite a bit of money,” Whitson said. “It could be used to lower the caseloads on all levels — social workers, psychologists, school counselors.” 

    However, the process for school districts to bill Medi-Cal can be long and cumbersome. 

    Sometimes districts won’t get a full refund, and it could take a few years before the money is returned, said Marlon Morgan, founder and CEO of Wellness Together, a nonprofit that brings mental health providers to school campuses in California and New York. 

    “Schools are pretty reticent to use that billing option because they could end up spending $1 million but only get $500,000 back,” Morgan said. “If you’re on a school board and looking at ways to stabilize your budget and to know what to expect, that’s a huge wild card, and frankly one that doesn’t get used very often.”

    In Sacramento County, schools are partnering with the Sacramento County Health Department to have one mental health provider at every school, said Gordon, who is also the superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education. The partnership works well because the county health departments already manage Medi-Cal and Medicaid plans — which insure more than 60% of people in the county, he added.

    The purpose isn’t only to provide direct services at schools, but to have someone from the health system stationed at schools interacting with staff, students, and families every day, Gordon said. The goal is to have “centers of wellness and prevention, rather than a center of let’s go out and seek treatment for a problem that should’ve been caught many years ago,” he said.

    Some organizations are combining billing insurance and grant funding to bring providers to schools. Campus Clinic, which aims to remove barriers to health care access by putting providers at schools, has brought mental health providers and other physicians to 14 districts and more than 600 schools in California, said Thomas Shaffer, the organization’s founder and president. 

    Most districts haven’t had to foot the bill. Campus Clinic started paying for all the costs, Shaffer said, and was able to sustain its offerings through billing insurance, including Medi-Cal, and applying for grants. One burden Campus Clinic and other similar organizations lift from districts is handling the paperwork and billing.  

    “We aim to complete, not compete, with existing resources,” Shaffer said. 

    Still, the need for mental health services and providers is too great to catch up with demand. Campus Clinic is contracted with 28 more districts that are still in the planning stages, Shaffer said. 

    Campus Clinic also offers universal health screenings that allow schools to quickly identify which students are showing signs of anxiety, depression and risk of self-harm, Shaffer said. Schools can see responses through a dashboard that includes real-time notifications for students who are at risk of self-harm. Campus Clinic has teams that start reaching out to families to offer services. 

    But it doesn’t come without challenges. Building trusting relationships with families so they feel comfortable accepting services can be an uphill battle.

    ‘The cultural and trust piece’

    Officials at Feaster Charter School in Chula Vista saw immediate results after Campus Clinic gave universal mental health screenings to students in grades six through eight in May.

    Out of the 350 students, roughly 40% were identified as having some level of anxiety and depression, said Karen Haro-Esparza, community school coordinator.

    Teams at Campus Clinic started contacting families right away, Haro-Esparza said. Although it’s a huge help, it also created challenges  — “the cultural and trust piece.” 

    “Because they are not a regular part of our staff, when Campus Clinic communicates with families, they have a lot of questions,” Haro-Esparza said.  “Our challenge has been, ‘How do we educate families further to destigmatize and normalize the partnerships?’”

    The stigma around mental health — especially among people of color and different cultures — is one reason families or guardians don’t seek or access resources for students. Something most mental health experts working in education can agree on is the importance of maintaining trust among schools, providers and families. 

    “It’s not just putting money out to buy services. It’s working to try to put the systems together so that they’re relating and families will come to know and trust the medical system even though they aren’t located in their community.”

    David Gordon

    Campus Clinic providers aim to become part of the school community, Shaffer said. One strategy Campus Clinic providers use is to rotate through different classrooms to speak with students about health and wellness for 15 minutes to become more familiar and create connections. 

    Wellness Together is investing in interns to diversify the workforce and build trusting relationships between communities and mental health providers, Morgan said. Before mental health professionals receive their licenses, they need to complete hundreds of hours that typically are unpaid — some programs won’t even allow future providers to have paid internships. 

    Morgan, who started his career as a school counselor, said he’s seen dozens of people never get their licenses because they can’t afford to work for free. It contributes to the lack of diversity in the behavioral health workforce, he said. Now, the nonprofit has more than 30 partnerships with universities in California to ensure interns are paid liveable wages and receive benefits. 

    Wellness Together pays interns working toward their licenses to be social workers, clinical and mental health counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, and a pupil personnel services credential. 

    “The biggest challenge is finding staff and making sure the staff reflects the communities they’re serving,” Morgan said. “By paying interns and paying associates, we now have an option and an opportunity to really hire the best person for the job and often hire a person who is local and from the community.”





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  • Special education teachers need more mental health initiatives

    Special education teachers need more mental health initiatives


    The federal government has not fully funded special education in decades, leaving the bulk of the costs to school districts and the state.

    Alison Yin/EdSource

    When Erica Mazariegos heard that a shocking number of special education teaching positions remain vacant, she was not surprised. With over 27 years as a special educator, Mazariegos is dedicated and passionate, yet says “the stress of recent years has led me to question my ability to carry on. There will come a point when I must prioritize my health over my career.”

    Like Erica, special education teachers throughout U.S. public schools have been vocal about their concerns regarding working conditions after the pandemic, particularly the shortage of resources and staff support. The attrition rates among special education teachers soared following Covid-19, and educators have endured heightened levels of job-related stress, prompting an increasing number of them to exit the profession.

    This exodus has left schools grappling with severe teacher shortages. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 45% of schools reported unfilled positions in special education roles, with 78% citing difficulties in hiring special education staff for the current school year. The situation in California closely mirrors the national shortages, with the Learning Policy Institute describing the teacher shortage in California as a “five-alarm fire.”

    The stress experienced by special educators is not only deeply ingrained in the inherent nature of their roles but also in the perceptions surrounding them. A key contributing factor is the idealization of special education teachers by schools, often portraying them as extraordinary individuals who are characterized as nurturing and self-sacrificing, willing to prioritize their students’ well-being over their own. It’s commonplace to hear general education teachers express sentiments like, “I could never do what you do.” This portrayal creates unrealistic expectations for special educators, adding to the systemic sources of stress, which include unequal resource allocation and a shortage of adequately trained support staff.

    Padma Vajhala, an early-career special education teacher with two years of experience, highlights many stressors in her job, such as individualized education program meetings, conducting paperwork checks, navigating uncertainties about parental consent, encountering subtle racism in schools, and adhering to the core mission of special education — differentiated teaching for each student. But, she underscores that these stressors are overshadowed by the primary source of stress: daily management of challenging behavior exhibited by her students in class without enough staff support. She points out that her stress affects students by hindering effective instruction, classroom management and the modeling of social-emotional skills. Stressed teachers are more likely to react unpredictably and employ ineffective behavior management strategies.

    While it remains crucial to address such systemic causes of stress as lack of staff support in the classroom, schools must simultaneously implement programs dedicated to teaching self-care strategies and allocate resources to support these educators’ mental health and overall well-being. These initiatives should involve professional development programs that prioritize physical wellness, encompassing exercise, dietary choices, and sleep, to sustain energy levels and enhance emotional resilience.

    Additionally, it is imperative to equip special educators with training in social-emotional learning skills. This training should cover the establishment of clear boundaries between their professional and personal lives, mindfulness practices, participation in yoga, and learning relaxation techniques. Acquiring these skills can significantly reduce stress levels among special educators while providing positive role models for students concurrently learning these skills in their classes.

    Most importantly, special education teachers can create communities of practice informally with their colleagues based on shared interests, facilitating connections with colleagues, mentors, and therapists to seek guidance and share their experiences. Moreover, these communities of practice can leverage self-reflection practices to recognize and manage stressors effectively.

    A notable approach is reflexive visual journaling, a creative process that intertwines written reflection with images, drawings, and other visual elements. This practice has demonstrated considerable effectiveness in early detection of burnout indicators, pinpointing triggers, and aiding individuals in navigating and coping with stress. Zachary McNiece, assistant professor of counselor education at San Jose State University, emphasizes the importance of visual journaling, stating, “In today’s post-Covid world, while teachers act as front-line mental health advocates, they can experience the after-effects of trauma their students have faced over the last few years; visual journaling creates a means for teachers to slow down, allow space for their feelings and reactions, and let go of the emotional residue of secondary trauma exposure, so they can improve their wellness and support their students.” These self-reflective practices can also be embedded into teacher preparation programs to support new special education teachers.

    Preventing burnout in special education cannot be solely an individual responsibility; it requires collaboration from schools, districts and policymakers. Special educators are pivotal in fostering an inclusive and equitable education system.

    It is essential that schools prioritize special educators’ well-being by supporting and implementing targeted self-care strategies to sustain their passion and dedication. This approach not only safeguards the mental and emotional health of educators but also enriches the educational experience for students with disabilities, ultimately contributing to the development of a stronger and more compassionate society.

    ●●●

    Sudha Krishnan is an assistant professor at San Jose State University’s special education department, Lurie College of Education, and a Public Voice Fellow with the OpEd Project.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Through comedy, students can take ‘big swings’ for mental health

    Through comedy, students can take ‘big swings’ for mental health


    Two teaching artists lead a group of students through improv exercises during a Laughing Together workshop at San Joaquin County Office of Education's Peer-to-Peer Summit in September 2024.

    Teaching artists lead students through improv exercises during a Laughing Together workshop at San Joaquin County Office of Education’s Peer-to-Peer Summit in September 2024.

    Top Takeaways
    • Many school districts are using comedy and improv workshops to teach students social-emotional skills, encourage self-expression and foster social connection. 
    • Through the comedy program Laughing Together, professional comedians and mental health clinicians develop workshops based on exercises that can improve student mental health. 
    • Game-based learning and interactive play can engage students who might have fallen behind academically or socially during the pandemic.

    “If you were an object, what object would you be?” 

    Chris Gethard, a veteran comedian and improv teacher, posed this question to a group of high school students in Northern California at a Laughing Together workshop he was leading. He remembered one who identified as a fruit. 

    “When I was a kid, I convinced myself that I hated avocados,” Gethard remembered the student saying. “And then I tried one, and I actually love ’em. And that’s been my experience the past few years as I’m learning to love and embrace myself.”

    It quickly became obvious to Gethard that the improv wasn’t about avocado or any fruit for that matter. It was a big moment, and the student was taking a big risk to figure out something about themselves — their gender identity in real time.

    “Young people right now are living in a world where those experiences are often held up in the spotlight and politicized,” Gethard said. “So to see a kid being able to take a comedy exercise, which feels light and accessible and not too heavy, they can let their guard down and take a big swing like that.”

    Many school districts are turning to comedy as a way of supporting student mental health. In 2023, Gethard co-founded Laughing Together, a program based on research that comedy can be an effective tool for students’ social-emotional learning and social connection with their peers. 

    Nearly 6,500 students and educators across 26 different schools, districts, or youth organizations, have taken part in their workshops since Gethard co-founded the program with Marlon Morgan, CEO of parent nonprofit Wellness Together. 

    “One of the reasons that we [partnered with Gethard] is that he had already shared about his own mental health through his comedy special on HBO,” said Morgan, who is also a former school counselor. “He can make dark and scary things funny, which really helps students gain insight into their own emotions and become better at connecting with each other.” 

    ‘Taking chances in the spotlight’

    Research shows that students who practice social-emotional skills in safe environments with well-defined goals have improved social behavior, emotional regulation and academic performance. 

    “We have clinical psychologists who go through all the improv exercises,” Gethard said. “They get to say — ‘these ones are about making people funny, and they also prioritize nonverbal communication, strengthening eye contact, being comfortable with failure and taking some chances in the spotlight.’”

    Christina Patterson, a senior and peer counselor at Lincoln High School in Stockton, said pandemic shutdowns forced her to spend nearly entire days scrolling through social media, hoping for something new to interact with (“But, there never is anything new,” she added). 

    For the first time since her school implemented a cellphone ban, Patterson said taking part in the Laughing Together workshop, even for an hour, met the level of engagement she had always been looking for on her phone. Like Patterson, students in recent years report better cognitive, social and academic outcomes through game-based learning and interactive play, compared to lecture-based instruction. 

    “I feel engaged with people who are interactive — they’re not trying to teach at you, but they’re trying to teach with you together,” Patterson said. 

    Laughing Together workshops are led by one of the program’s teaching artists, including professional comedians, actors and performers, alongside children’s psychologists, drawing on art, play and game therapy research, to develop social-emotional learning and communication skill-building into each exercise. For Gethard, a workshop is successful if he can teach students something without them realizing it. 

    “We want kids to leave feeling more connected and comfortable with each other, not like they just watched a slide show or that they were just spoon-fed these lessons,” he said. “We want them to feel that they’re allowed to at least throw an idea out there, and no one’s going to judge them, pick them apart, or criticize them.” 

    Sofia Stewart-Lopez, a senior and peer counselor at Lincoln High School, helped set up a peer-to-peer summit, where she and other student mentors took part in a Laughing Together workshop. She remembered starting the day anxious about a big presentation about mental health resources she had later in the day, but after a few skits and improv games, she felt more confident, relaxed and connected to the people around her. 

    “I learned that a big part of balancing heavy topics of mental health, like anxiety, depression or substance abuse, is learning how to combat them with things that can help you with those feelings,” Stewart-Lopez said.

    Markus Alcantar, a senior and a peer counselor at Lincoln High School, said his favorite part of the workshop was one in which he got to become an apple. He had to think on his feet about why he felt like one, and then he improvised a skit with someone who had decided they were a tree. In another exercise, he said a volunteer started with juggling a ball, after which students added another ball, followed by another, and then another — until they couldn’t keep up anymore. 

    “It was a fun representation of how you can have a lot of things going on in your head mentally, and that you can learn to unravel those thoughts and organize them for yourself and other people,” Alcantar said. 

    About 1 in 5 teenagers, and most of Stewart-Lopez’s friends at school, she said, have experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression. So the workshop, she said, was particularly helpful in understanding how laughter exactly works in the brain — like how endorphins and serotonin receptors can alleviate some feelings of sadness or anxiety — to be able to have fun and build healthy coping skills with friends at school. 

    “The [improv exercises] also taught us that thinking on our feet better prepares us to be able to respond in different types of situations,” Stewart-Lopez said. “We learned that different people need different types of support, which betters us as mentors.”

    Middle school students attend a Laughing Together workshop at San Joaquin County Office of Education’s Peer-to-Peer Summit in September 2024.

    Most recently, Gethard completed nine workshops at a high school where over half of the student body are on Individualized Education Plans (IEP), or accommodations for students with learning, developmental, or behavioral disabilities. During the first workshop, he noticed most students reaching for their phones in the middle of an exercise or while on stage. To ease students into the experience, he’d tell them to simply take a breath and try to be present. 

    “After the first few workshops, a teacher came up to me and said, ‘their ability to lock in and focus on that is leaps and bounds compared to week one,” Gethard said. “She said, ‘they just never got their ability to focus back after Covid, but if we can keep going with this, it’s going to change the game for these kids in the room.’” 

    Rates of anxiety and depression — which shot up by 70% among California children between 2017 and 2022 — are the top health-related drivers of absenteeism since the onset of the pandemic. Research indicates that reduced social interaction, coupled with overreliance on screen time, also worsened students’ social cognition skills, such as cooperation and communication, and executive functions, such as attention and memory.

    Alcantar was in seventh grade when schools shut down, and when he returned to in-person instruction as a high school freshman, he said he found it difficult for him to initiate conversations with people around him. Stewart-Lopez said that after schools lifted mask mandates, she kept hers on for a while because she was worried about meeting social expectations about what she should look like. 

    “The pandemic had added to my sense of anxiety about, ‘What if I don’t fit in? What if I’m different from everybody else?” she said. 

    For Stewart-Lopez, laughter feels like home. It’s how she and her sisters got through their parents’ separation and also how she plans to take new risks with new people at college this year. 

    “We’re creating that safe place for students to get real-time responses to the risks they’re taking — and everyone’s taking risks — which makes it okay,” said Morgan, the CEO of nonprofit Wellness Together.





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  • ‘Looking at the whole child’: State leaders discuss ways to improve students’ mental health

    ‘Looking at the whole child’: State leaders discuss ways to improve students’ mental health


    Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource

    Bringing more mental health professionals onto campuses, training teachers and reducing negative stigmas surrounding mental illness are critical to students’ wellbeing, according to experts at Friday’s Select Committee on School Climate and Student Safety meeting. 

    From kindergarteners to high school seniors, students across California are still struggling with mental health challenges in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic — and districts across the state have come up with various strategies to provide support. 

    “We need to shed light on the current state of student mental health, identify key challenges and explore potential solutions,” said State Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), who led the discussion. 

    Mental health challenges

    While most of society has moved on from the Covid-19 pandemic, a large proportion of students have not. 

    “A lot of us —  not only children, but adults as well — we became a lot more isolated,” said Jonathan Wicks, a social worker at YWCA San Gabriel Valley, at Friday’s hearing. “Now that we’re all reintegrating back into social spaces, a lot of times, it’s not as easy to connect, and so that connectedness that belongingness isn’t always there.” 

    Most mental health conditions start to manifest when someone is in their youth or young adulthood; Jeannine Topalian, former president of California Association of School Psychologists, who also serves on the California’s Advisory Commission on Special Education, cited an ACLU report which found that more than 63% of students reported experiencing an emotional meltdown, while nearly half said they were depressed.

    Wicks added that over the past few years, young people have increasingly turned to marijuana and other substances to cope, which has led some to “over indulging and going into psychosis.”

    Mental health staff

    Schools often don’t have the staffing and resources to support struggling students.

    According to Topalian, there are 1,041 students for every school psychologist in California and  7,308 students for every social worker. 

    “There are six year olds out there who are in crisis today, who are in need of a lot of support from mental health professionals,” she said. “And what better place than a school where that’s the hub of the community to provide these services.”

    Mental health professionals at schools are overwhelmed with hefty caseloads which makes it harder to pay attention to students’ individual needs or to take a more preventative approach. 

    Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors, said that some progress has been made in California’s counselor-to-student ratio. In the 2012-13 academic year, the ratio was 826 students to one counselor. Now, it’s roughly half that. 

    “I think 800 would be more like urgent care. We’re responding to crises,” she said. “….When you have 400, then you are able to do comprehensive strategic work.”

    The national suggestion is a 250:1 ratio, she added. 

    “We’re not where we want to be…., but we’re moving in the right direction,” Whitson said, adding that there are more counseling services in elementary schools now, where students start learning social skills and ways to cope. 

    Fifty percent of all school counselors nationwide in California, and 33 university programs in the state are turning out new counselors, Whitson added. 

    A ‘first line of defense’: involving teachers

    Involving teachers is a critical support for students in their mental health challenges, the speakers agreed. 

    Kim Griffin Esperon, a project director of Mental Health & School Counseling at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, emphasized the importance of creating step-by-step protocols that teachers and staff can be trained to implement. 

    Teachers should also be provided with guidelines to help them spot signs of depression, and their input should always be considered, Topalian said. 

    “We often tell teachers or staff what to do. It’s very important to think about asking them what they need and where their skill set is before we implement or develop programs,” she said. “They need to be part of the process rather than being the people who are in the frontline trying to do this work for our students.”

    Off campus 

    Reducing the stigma around mental illness is also critical to students accessing support, the speakers agreed. 

    “Traditionally, schools and communities have understood mental health supports and services to be necessarily only for those students who have been identified as having a mental health disorder, or they have assumed that all students experiencing mental health challenges require intensive mental health interventions,” Esperon said. 

    “Fortunately, our understanding has evolved to refocus our attention on prevention and earlier identification of students who are struggling as well as referral to the appropriate level of services to meet students’ needs.” 

    Wicks said there are several intergenerational families in the San Gabriel Valley — which can make it harder for students to access support because of varied attitudes toward mental health support and counseling. 

    “I could see the challenge, you know, for the youth to hear the information and maybe want to move in that direction [of seeking help],” Wicks said. “But when they would go home and have those discussions, they would kind of come back with a ‘No thank you.’” 

    He added that youth advisory opportunities, where students can interact with one another, can be particularly helpful. And some districts have explored peer-to-peer counseling, which can also reduce students’ feelings of isolation. 

    Other ways to expand access 

    The Los Angeles Unified School District has attempted to expand community outreach to reduce stigmas around mental illness — while using Telehealth options to provide students with mental health supports, according to the district’s Administrator of Student Health and Human Services Joel Cisneros. 

    He said LAUSD also has its own psychiatric emergency response team, which intervenes in crises where students could harm themselves or someone else. 

    “[It’s] going beyond the idea that we’re just producing students to an academic process in order to graduate and to be successful,” Whitson said. “It’s also looking at the whole child. And that shift in perspective, I think, is really contributing to some of the changes that we’re trying to do.”





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  • Helping students with mental health struggles may help them return to school

    Helping students with mental health struggles may help them return to school


    Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

    Students who are chronically absent from school are much more likely to struggle with mental health challenges, with pre-teen boys and teen girls reporting some of the highest signs of distress.

    When students need help, availability of mental health support often depends on the income of families. “As household income increased, so did the availability of mental health services” in children’s schools, University of Southern California researchers found in a survey of 2,500 households nationwide.

    Their findings are part of an in-depth report on the continuing national school absenteeism crisis in which 25% of students, or about 12 million children, across 42 states and Washington, D.C., were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year. That rate remains higher than the pre-pandemic national rate of 15%.

    EDITORS NOTE

    This in-depth report on chronic absenteeism is part of an EdSource partnership with the Associated Press and Stanford Professor Thomas Dee.

    For earlier coverage, go to EdSource’s Getting Students Back to School.

    — Rose Ciotta, investigations and projects editor

    While California saw a decrease of 5 percentage points in chronic absenteeism during the same school year, to 24.9%, districts statewide are still struggling to get all students back to school.

    “Chronic absenteeism in California is still twice what it was prior to the pandemic, and roughly 1 in 4 kids in public schools are chronically absent. That is just really striking and is a serious barrier to achieving academic recovery for this generation of students who were so harmed by the pandemic,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford University education professor and economist who gathered nationwide data in collaboration with The Associated Press and the release of the USC research.

    Emotional and behavioral problems also have kept kids home from school. University of Southern California research shared exclusively with AP found strong relationships between absenteeism and poor mental health.

    For example, in the USC study, almost a quarter of chronically absent kids had high levels of emotional or behavioral problems, according to a parent questionnaire, compared with just 7% of kids with good attendance. Emotional symptoms among teen girls were especially linked with missing lots of school.

    Families with the lowest incomes reported a much higher rate of using mental health services if they were offered to their children in school — more than five times higher than those with the highest incomes. And, crucially, the researchers also found that 1 in 5 respondents would have used mental health services if they were made available at their school, with higher rates among Black and Hispanic families who were surveyed.

    “There is tremendous opportunity here for schools to increase the offerings but also, if they have the offerings, to increase the outreach to the kids and the families that need it because there is clearly an unmet need,” said Amie Rapaport, who co-authored the report and is the co-director of Center for Economic and Social Research at USC.

    ‘I had a very bad year’

    If Jennifer Hwang’s son made it to his first grade classroom, it was rarely without a fight.

    He struggled with severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Hwang says his teacher’s habit of discarding art work in front of him would spike his anxiety, leading to violent outbursts and refusing to even get in the car or walk onto campus.

    “I thought I would have a good year in first grade, but I didn’t,” said her son, 8, whose name Hwang declined to share to protect his privacy. “I had a very bad year.”

    The absences began piling up during the second semester of that 2022-23 school year; he started missing two to three days most weeks. He soon became chronically absent, meaning he missed at least 40 days total. That classified him as chronically absent because he had missed at least 10% or more days in one school year. He began to see a therapist outside the L.A. Unified district.

    Hwang tried getting her son an individualized education program (IEP), which would grant him access to school-based counseling services given his ADHD diagnosis. But because her son’s academic performance was up to par, the school said he didn’t need it.

    She also inquired about him seeing a child psychologist who went to his Riverside Drive Charter campus in Sherman Oaks once or twice a week — but the waitlists were too long. Because he was already seeing a therapist outside of school, Hwang gave up on pressing for school resources.

    The USC report published Thursday highlights that pre-teen boys, which includes children ages 5 to 12, are struggling significantly with symptoms of hyperactivity and conduct problems, while teen girls, ages 13 to 17, are struggling most with emotional symptoms, such as depression and anxiety.

    Morgan Polikoff, a co-author of the USC report, said they cannot confirm there is “a cause and effect here,” noting that the correlation between chronic absenteeism and mental health challenges could “go both directions.”

    “In reality, it’s probably both ways. There’s probably some kids for whom increasing anxiety is leading them to stay home, and there’s probably kids who are missing a lot of school and that’s increasing their anxiety. So it probably is bi-directional or multi-directional,” Rapaport agreed.

    Both the USC researchers and Dee advocated for more research to better understand the causes of persistently high chronic absenteeism rates.

    LAUSD’s chronic absenteeism problem

    Last year, for second grade, everything changed, Hwang said, largely thanks to a teacher who adapted assignments to suit her son’s social-emotional needs and incorporated “brain breaks” into the school day, which Hwang’s son said helped him concentrate.

    “She understood him. She knew that he was bright and he felt things much more deeply, and he saw things differently and with a very different perspective,” Hwang said. “She allowed him to feel heard.”

    “One day (his teacher told me), ‘Oh, my goodness, your son just gave me a hug!’ Hwang said. “That doesn’t come cheap because he does not give out hugs very often. So that he actually hugged the teacher … that says a lot.”

    Hwang and her family aren’t sure what third grade will bring, but they were able to at least secure a 504, a type of plan that helps level the playing field for students with disabilities, so her son could have access to a special chair and space to doodle.

    LAUSD, the second-largest school district in the nation, has struggled with high rates of chronic absenteeism since the onset of the pandemic. Nearly 33% of their over 400,000 students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, down from about 40% the previous year.

    Most recently, in 2023-24, preliminary data shows their rate is hovering at 32.3%, a spokesperson said.

    Still not enough

    LAUSD has increased its staffing of social workers and pupil attendance workers, but staffers say it’s just not enough.

    “We have what we can afford at this point — more than ever before — but still not at an appropriate ratio that I think this board, or myself, would feel comfortable,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said at a news conference Monday.

    Carvalho described the district’s staffing as “an unprecedented network” but did not specify how much staffing had increased.

    Ofelia Sofia Ryan is one of roughly 400 LAUSD pupil services and attendance workers trying to bring students back to school.
    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    Ofelia Sofia Ryan is one of LAUSD’s roughly 400 pupil services and attendance counselors who are on the front lines helping get chronically absent students connected with mental health resources and Medi-Cal so they can get back to school.

    This year, the 20-year district veteran works in five elementary schools, including Orchard Academies in the city of Bell.

    “Poverty is the No. 1 issue. Financial issues are … second — the inability of a parent to monitor because they are having two jobs, which also relates to the poverty issue,” Ryan said. “Mental health, I would say that will be maybe next.”

    Darlene Rivas, one of the district’s 800 psychiatric social workers (PSWs), is assigned to two East Los Angeles elementary schools: William R. Anton and Lorena Street.

    “We have to be team players because it can’t just be one person,” Rivas said. “I think that’s why you see a lot of exhaustion within PSW professionals.”

    There is a long waitlist for students in need of therapy, she said. If a parent can’t make it to an initial appointment, it can take months to reschedule.

    Adding staffing can come from school funding, but there are competing demands.

    This year Ryan said she started on an LAUSD campus two days a week. At the last minute, “boom,” they dropped a day, she said.

    “That’s very unfair, because (the district tells) you, on one hand, mental health matters, attendance matters. You’re working your butt off to get attendance improved. I improved attendance in all my schools. Everything was done by the book, and then (the school) just took the money away,” said Ryan. “You cannot do anything. You are powerless.”

    Carvalho regularly touts the district’s iAttend program, where he, among others, visits the homes of chronically absent students to coax them back to school. The district made more than 34,000 home visits last school year, contributing to a more than 4 percentage point decrease in chronic absenteeism, according to the district.

    What the public doesn’t know is how much work it takes after the house visit to get the child back in school, Ryan said.

    Local barriers require local solutions

    Researchers like Dee offer advice for lowering chronic absenteeism rates: “Be acutely aware of the problem” and “look to the really local barriers.”

    That advice appears to be playing out successfully farther north, in Placer County, where more and more of Roseville City School District’s 12,000 students are attending school regularly each year.

    Placer’s 2023-24 absenteeism rate is expected to be about 11% — nearly double what it was pre-pandemic. But that is down from 20% in 2022-23 and 26% in 2021-22.

    School staff have found the two main reasons for the absences are “misinformation and a lot of struggle,” said Jessica Hull, the district’s executive director of communication and community engagement. They zeroed in on these top reasons by closely tracking absenteeism over several years with their attendance system plus a notification system managed by a third-party team, SchoolStatus, that they hired specifically to address chronic absences.

    The misinformation largely centers on families being unsure of whether to send a child to school when they are sick, not knowing they can rely on independent study if the family is going on a lengthy vacation, or not understanding the importance of enrolling in pre-kindergarten known as TK.

    Roseville City School District’s attendance roadmap for parents.

    This misinformation is part of what Dee and other researchers are calling “norm erosion.”

    “The learning experiences of families and students during the pandemic, in particular the experience of remote schooling, may have reduced the perceived value of regular school attendance among students and parents,” said Dee.

    He cautioned against blaming parents for the erosion, saying that “we’re in a crisis now that merits immediate attention and perhaps a little less finger-pointing.”

    The struggles that Hull, from Roseville, said families face are often mental health challenges, particularly with middle schoolers, or families with unmet basic needs, such as unstable housing.

    One of their solutions to both barriers has been constant check-ins with those chronically absent students in order to offer resources, such as access to mental health specialists, gas cards to families facing transportation issues, and offering families bags of food from the local food bank.

    Another help is clearly explaining the notices behind their child being absent. “Schools are all about the acronym and all about words that no one else understands, so we start sending letters home and talking about truancy and chronically truant and excused absence and unexcused absence — all of that’s a mess,” Hull said.

    Instead, parents can expect to see at schools half-sheets of card stock paper explaining the terms and printed in five languages from English to Ukrainian to Pashto.

    “It’s really trying to remove that language barrier when we are talking jargon, and they’re just saying, ‘my kid needs help, we need help figuring out how to get them to school,’” Hull said.

    In Oakland, districtwide efforts include creating a sense of belonging. Oakland’s African American Male Achievement project, for example, pairs Black students with Black teachers who offer support.

    Kids who identify with their educators are more likely to attend school, said Michael Gottfried, a University of Pennsylvania professor. According to one study led by Gottfried, California students felt “it’s important for me to see someone who’s like me early on, first thing in the day,” he said.

    The Associated Press contributed to this story.





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  • Boosting achievement, mental health are priorities for LAUSD student board member Anely Cortez Lopez

    Boosting achievement, mental health are priorities for LAUSD student board member Anely Cortez Lopez


    LAUSD student board member Anely Cortez Lopez says she’s grateful for the privilege of offering a voice to students.

    Credit: LAUSD

    Vowing to uplift student voices, Anely Cortez Lopez was sworn in as the Los Angeles Unified School District school board student board member on Aug. 13 — the second day of the 2024-25 school year. 

    While student board members, who are elected by their peers, cannot formally vote on resolutions that come before the LAUSD school board, they can issue advisory votes, voice opinions and introduce resolutions. 

    “Since I was very little, I knew that student advocacy was a large priority — not only for my community, but just in my heart — knowing that I have the opportunity to advocate for the most needed issues and most important issues,” Lopez said. 

    Although only 17-years-old, Lopez has already served on the Superintendent’s Advisory Council, a group that provides student input to the superintendent on various district efforts, and has volunteered at local retirement homes, where she was also able to witness disparities in health care. 

    Lopez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said that from a young age, her mother would take her to town hall and neighborhood meetings where she would often help translate for her mother. That was where she quickly developed a passion for civic engagement — which has morphed into college plans for studying political science, with an emphasis on public health. 

    Soon after she was sworn in, Lopez spoke to EdSource about the issues LAUSD students feel are most pressing. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

    What motivated you to run for the position of student board member? 

    Being from a Title 1 school has allowed me to see a lot of the struggles of my community, and not only within my own community at school, but also within my family. And I have seen what happens to students when they succumb to the … .conditions within the neighborhood, and I believe that is one of the reasons why this position means so much to me. I’ve seen the situations that are occurring within our districts firsthand and can see what changes need to be implemented. And, I’m just so grateful for this opportunity and so grateful for this place of privilege to offer a voice to students.

    Are there things at your own school that you wanted to see improved?

    A large majority of students are low-income; and a large majority of those students are minorities, first generation, English learners. And that is primarily where the achievement gap exists within our schools. I feel as though seeing that and being in those shoes — especially as a first-generation student myself — I’ve seen the need for our community, for mentors and programs in place to amplify the needs and voices of our students. 

    You’ve been elected to represent Los Angeles Unified’s huge and diverse student body. What do you see as the challenges students are most concerned about as the new school year gets going? 

    Students’ voices are desired to be heard and not overshadowed. They’re the ones who are sitting in the seats eight hours a day and have such a unique perspective on the issues that, to them, need the most attention. And … when they feel their input is not taken into account, that is when issues begin to become present in the student body. So definitely, the amplifying of student voices and also an increase in mental health and wellness. 

    From the pandemic, we’ve seen an increase of issues in our student body, pertaining specifically to mental health and wellness and seeing how, at a systematic level, we can learn to combat that. And going into that also is preventive measures surrounding drug use within our youth and ensuring that our school environment is a sanctuary for opportunity to flourish, and ensure only the best for our students here in LAUSD — and also focusing on the fact that a lot of these students may come from households that might not provide mentorship. So, also providing mentorship for some of our most marginalized groups in LAUSD, such as first- generation, low-income and English learners to, once again, help close that achievement gap.

    What are the issues you are most passionate about? 

    I definitely am very passionate about amplifying the student voice. Because although there might be issues that specifically pertain to me, I found that being in this position of power means not being led by my own ideas, but being led by the needs of my peers. Since I represent such a large group of students, it’s so important for me to take into account the various issues that are being presented to me from the student population, and ensuring that those are the perspectives that are being shared and not just my own. 

    What do you hope to accomplish during your time in the position? 

    One of the biggest goals for this year is to … amplify student voices. But especially since my term falls within our election year, ensuring that students understand the value of their civic engagement — whether it be in volunteering for their community, pre-registering to vote, ensuring that everyone in their families who is capable of voting and is 18 and older is voting in this election, and knowing that their voices are not overshadowed, that they have a place here in this country, that they are able to share their needs and problems and that they will receive solutions to them. 





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  • Q&A: How new wellness coaches expand mental health support in California schools

    Q&A: How new wellness coaches expand mental health support in California schools


    Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource

    Early this year, the California Department of Health Care Access and Information introduced the new Certified Wellness Coach program, aimed at improving the state’s inadequate capacity to support growing behavioral and mental health needs in California’s youth. 

    The program is part of the historic five-year, $4.6 billion state-funded Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, of which the Department received $278 million to recruit, train and certify a diverse slate of mental health support personnel, or certified wellness coaches, in schools and community-based organizations across the state. 

    Dr. Sharmil Shah, assistant deputy director of behavioral health for HCAI.
    Sharmil Shah, assistant deputy director of the California Department of Health Care Access and Information.

    According to Sharmil Shah, assistant deputy director of the California Department of Health Care Access and Information, certified wellness coaches work under a care team of licensed clinicians and professionals in pre-K, K-12 and post-secondary school settings. Most coaches have relevant associate or bachelor’s degrees in social work and human services and are trained in nonclinical behavioral health support. 

    Shah says the program strives to become a long-term response to a long-term crisis in California — that rates of anxiety and depression among the state’s children shot up by 70% between 2017 and 2022, and that following the COVID-19 pandemic, many adolescents experienced serious psychological distress and reported a 20% increase in suicides. 

    As part of a five-year initiative’s broader push to redefine student success, the program builds on research that behavioral interventions also improve academic performance and attendance in schools. In fact, anxiety, depression and mental health are the top health-related drivers of absenteeism since the onset of the pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health. Simply put, students who feel better do better in school. 

    EdSource interviewed Shah about the new wellness coach program. Her remarks have been edited for length and clarity. 

    Describe the Certified Wellness Coach program. What can young people expect from the new wellness coaches?

    Certified wellness coaches are meant to be an additional, trusted adult on a school campus — whether it’s an elementary school, middle school, high school or a college campus. This is a person that young people can turn to in times of need. Coaches would offer preventive and early intervention services and are intended to support a child or even a 25-year-old before a severe behavioral health need arises. 

    Some of the things that a parent or a child might see are classroom-level presentations, supporting school counselors with [mental health] screenings, individual and small group check-ins, wellness education and referrals to advanced behavioral health providers in times of crisis, among many other services. 

    What are the two types of wellness coaches, and how are their roles different?

    There is a Certified Wellness Coach 1 and Certified Wellness Coach II. The Certified Wellness Coach 1 offers entry-level behavioral health supports, such as structured curriculum, to small groups or classrooms, which are focused on wellness promotion and education, mental health literacy — understanding the language of mental health — and life skills. They also support screenings for young people, connect them to behavioral health resources and professionals. If it becomes apparent that someone has a more significant need for behavioral health services, they’ll do a warm hand-off to a higher level of care.

    The Certified Wellness Coach II provides a little more in-depth prevention and early intervention support to children and youth. They provide structured curriculum for groups or classrooms that’s focused on enhancing awareness of common behavioral health conditions like depression, anxiety. The Certified Wellness Coach II can help young people overcome maladaptive thinking patterns, distraction strategies and emotional regulations, and are able to do higher level interventions than a Certified Wellness Coach 1. 

    To support a mental health screening, a Certified Wellness Coach 1 can give the child some information about it, but they won’t administer the questions. The Certified Wellness Coach II can actually facilitate a screening process, be in the room and get everything set up, but they must still all be under the guidance of a school counselor who has qualifications to administer the screening and ask the questions, for example. 

    Why was it important to implement the program at all levels of schooling — from early education to community college? 

    It’s essential for children and youth to get help earlier on in the continuum of care, especially before a crisis arises. We believe that by supporting them at a younger age, we can provide them with the tools and skills to support their behavioral health and build resilience as they age. Wellness coaches can support youth through all the different changes, not only as related to age, but to life in general. We start at a very young age and then continue to an age where they can actually remember and hold onto the skills that they’ve learned. 

    How did the pandemic shape your vision for the program?

    For students, we saw increased levels of anxiety, depression, social isolation, a disruption in their education, economic difficulties, and, of course, a lot of loss and grief. Children and adolescents lost family members who did not survive the pandemic. From research, we knew that there was already a youth mental health crisis in the state of California. The pandemic exacerbated it.

    One system alone cannot address these challenges, but the school system is where all the kids are. There’s just not enough school personnel to address the need across the state. Through the development of this workforce, we hope that we can complement the incredible work that the educators are already doing by being a partner in their students’ health. Our wellness coaches can focus on social isolation, anxiety, feelings of sadness, and feeling connected and able to talk to somebody. 

    In a 2022 survey, about 55% of teachers said they would retire earlier than planned due to burnout from the pandemic. Could wellness coaches help relieve some of that ongoing burnout?

    I was a PTA president, and I was in those environments in which I saw that there’s a child in the classroom that clearly looks like they need behavioral health services, and the teacher is spending maybe 90% of his or her time on that student, and the rest of the [students] are just kind of running around in circles. The current counselor-to-student ratio in California is about 1 to 464. It’s impossible, and it’s nearly double the recommended ratio. As the staff that spends the most time with students, the burden of supporting student behavioral health often falls on the teacher. That’s just not sustainable. That’s not helpful for the teachers, and they can’t do their job. By adding additional behavioral health professionals on campus, like wellness coaches, we can hopefully alleviate some of that burden and allow teachers to focus on the academic success of their students. 

    How will certified wellness coaches serve youth from multilingual or multicultural backgrounds? Will coaches reflect the demographics and experiences of their school’s student body?

    Equity and effective access to care is a cornerstone of our programs. We have been recruiting diverse candidates to become wellness coaches and making sure that we adequately address cultural responsiveness and humility as part of their training. We have done very extensive marketing and outreach campaigns that use a variety of channels and messaging to get to as many populations as we can, including underserved and underrepresented communities. 

    We also selected our employer support grant awardees, mostly schools and some community-based organizations, based on geographic spread, to make sure that all 58 counties were represented and could hire coaches. And then we also provided special consideration to Title 1 [low income] schools, organizations whose staff speak multiple languages, and organizations that support Medi-Cal students. And then we had two scholarship cycles to support students who wanted to become wellness coaches. We [will support] their tuition and living expenses, especially for those who came from different backgrounds or didn’t have a lot of resources.

    We are also partnering with California community colleges, which offer resources and support for underserved and underrepresented populations to enter the wellness coach system. What we found in our research is that 65% of their students were classified as economically disadvantaged. So we’re already addressing those groups. 

    And as part of our certification requirements, we’re focusing on specific degrees such as social work, human services and addiction studies, which already include cultural responsiveness and cultural humility as part of their key learning outcomes. What we’ve heard anecdotally from a lot of young people is that, “I don’t see myself in the people that are helping me or serving me,” and we want them to feel safe and comfortable with the person that they’re talking to. 

    Where are you in the rollout of the program?

    In February 2024, we launched the certification program for wellness coaches. As of Sept. 17, we have certified 383 coaches, and that number is steadily growing. We’ve done so much outreach and engagement and social media blips and radio ads, because we need to be able to reach the young people where they are. As of August, the Department executed 64 21-month grant awards of $125 million to employer support grants for schools and community-based organizations to hire wellness coaches. That will fund the placement of more than 1,500 certified wellness coaches between this school year and next school year. And then, also, in August, we awarded 99 individuals with scholarships totaling about $2.8 million for those pursuing degrees with which they apply to become a certified wellness coach. 

    How can the program address broader post-pandemic issues such as chronic absenteeism and declining school enrollment?

    We’re hoping that wellness coaches will strengthen young people by providing them with a safe place to share their fears and teaching them the skills necessary to cope with life’s challenges. We believe that equipping them with these skills will decrease absenteeism, help them focus on their schoolwork and also be able to have them integrate themselves into the school environment. Young people with behavioral health conditions are sometimes isolated, bullied, made fun of and may not even like school as a result of all of those things that are going on. If they have a safe place, a safe adult, a safe person that they can talk to about some of the feelings they have, they will be happy to come back to school, look at it as a place of learning and a place to make friends. 

    What kind of challenges do you foresee in keeping the program running and successful?

    Sustainability. Everything runs on the mighty dollar. We are in the final years of the [Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative] right now, and we can use those funds to sustain the program for probably another year or two. We are actively partnering with the Department of Health Care Services, and other state departments, to make certified wellness coaches’ services billable through Medi-Cal [and commercial insurance], which will support sustainable financing in our schools [beyond the five-year initiative].

    Extensive research has demonstrated that students who feel like they belong in schools perform better in the classroom and have better rates of attendance. This not only benefits the student, but it also potentially benefits the schools in retaining coaches, as school finances are based in-part on school attendance.

    What kind of feedback have you received about the program?

    I had a student who said, “I didn’t really feel like there were a lot of places to go to, even though they had help available. I didn’t trust people to confide in.” You never want people to feel like they have nowhere to go or that they’re alone. This was a student who would then become a wellness coach. Another student who became a wellness coach said that she didn’t feel there was enough support when kids needed help where she lived. She said, “If I’m struggling, I want to know there’s someone there for me if I genuinely need it.” She said she’s had really hard days, but being able to open up and talk about it makes the world seem a little more colorful. It makes her feel lighter on her feet. 

    We had some parents indicate that wellness coaches are a great way to give back to the community, because they’re giving back to our future, our children. It’s helping them be productive members of society and be the best version of themselves.

    This story was updated for clarity.





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  • Let’s stop tinkering and really change how schools address mental health

    Let’s stop tinkering and really change how schools address mental health


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    What are education leaders doing about transforming the way schools address learning, behavior and emotional problems? The current answer, it seems, is: not much.

    We do see increasing discussions among education leaders about transforming education in general. Naturally, much of the focus is on improving instruction and making major changes in how schools are managed (e.g., financed, administered, held accountable). However, when it comes to improving how schools play their role in providing support when students are not doing well, proposals for transformative changes generally are not forthcoming.

    The result: As the number of learning, behavior and emotional problems increases, schools continue to react in inadequate ways.

    What’s wrong with what schools are doing now?

    All schools devote resources to coping with student problems. Some are able to offer a range of student and learning supports; others can provide only what is mandated. In the majority of schools, what is available usually covers relatively few students. More resources would help. But school budgets always are tight, and adding the number of student support staff that advocates call for is really not in the cards.

    In general, districts plan and implement student and learning supports in a fragmented and piecemeal manner, generating a variety of specialized programs and services. Over many years, increasing concern about fragmented approaches has produced calls for “integrated services” and, recently, for “integrated support systems.”

    However, by focusing primarily on fragmentation, policymakers and school improvement advocates fail to deal with a core underlying problem. What drives the fragmentation is the longstanding marginalization in school improvement policy of the role schools must play in addressing barriers to learning and teaching.

    A fundamental challenge for education leaders and policymakers is ending this marginalization. Meeting the challenge requires escaping old ways of thinking about how schools address learning, behavior and emotional problems.

    What might a transformed approach look like?

    Addressing the pervasive and complex barriers that impede effective teaching and student learning requires a systemwide approach that comprehensively and equitably supports whole-child development and learning. This involves districts and schools rethinking how they frame the practices they use to address learning, behavior and emotional problems.

    In this respect, the current widespread adoption of some form of a multitiered “continuum of interventions” (commonly known as MTSS) is a partial step in the right direction. This framework recognizes that a full range of intervention must include a focus on promoting whole-student healthy development, preventing problems, providing immediate assistance when problems appear, and ensuring assistance for serious and chronic special education concerns. But moving forward, our research has clarified the need to reframe each level of intervention into subsystems designed to weave together school and community resources.

    Moreover, our research indicates that the various programs, services, initiatives and strategies can be grouped into six domains of classroom and schoolwide student and learning support. The six arenas encompass interventions that:

    • Embed student and learning supports into regular classroom strategies to enable learning and teaching
    • Support transitions (e.g., new grade, new school, before/after school, during lunch and other daily transitions)
    • Increase home and school connections and engagement
    • Respond to — and, where feasible, prevent — school and personal crises
    • Increase community involvement and collaborative engagement
    • Facilitate student and family access to special assistance.

    Organizing the activity in this way helps clarify what supports are needed in and out of the classroom and across each level of the continuum to enable effective teaching and motivate student learning.

    We recognize that the changes education leaders are already pursuing represent considerable challenges and that the changes we discuss can be daunting.

    But maintaining the status quo is untenable, and just doing more tinkering will not meet the need.

    Transforming how schools play their role in addressing barriers to learning and teaching into a unified, comprehensive and equitable system that is fully integrated into school improvement policy and practice is essential to enhancing equity of opportunity for students to succeed at school and beyond.

    •••

    Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor are co-directors of the Center for MH in Schools & Student/Learning Supports at UCLA, an initiative to improve outcomes for students by helping districts and their schools enhance how they address barriers to learning and teaching.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Wellness coaches take on youth mental health problem in rural California

    Wellness coaches take on youth mental health problem in rural California


    Students work on homework during an after-school program in Chico, the largest city in Butte County. (File photo)

    Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource

    At 14, Charlotte Peery dropped out of high school. 

    “I was one of those silent sufferers,” Peery said. “I was battling with addiction, and once I finally decided I couldn’t go to school anymore, there wasn’t anyone around to say, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do’.” 

    It took another four years for Peery, raised in rural Tehama County, to return to school and enroll in an alternative education program. There, she met a counselor who provided the academic guidance and mental health counseling she needed to graduate from high school. Peery has since started earning her bachelor’s degree in social work and has become one of Tehama County schools’ first certified wellness coaches. 

    “When I had the opportunity to apply to be a wellness coach — it was everything I’ve always wanted to do — to provide the kind of support that I lacked when I needed it most,” Peery said.

    As an entry-level wellness coach, Peery provides students with nonclinical support such as quick check-ins, screenings, referrals to specialists, structured mental health curriculum and outreach to their families. 

    Peery’s role is part of the state’s $4.6 billion Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, for which the Department of Health Care Access and Information received $278 million to recruit, train and certify a diverse slate of mental health support personnel, known as certified wellness coaches, for schools and community-based organizations. Since February 2024, the department has hired over 2,000 certified wellness coaches. 

    “The wellness coach program helped define what coping skills and home-to-school services I could focus on,” said Jacque Thomas, who serves as a certified wellness coach II and is able to provide more in-depth services to students, such as individual 30-minute sessions focused on coping skills, goal-setting and life skills. 

    According to a 2021 study, 45% of California youth between the ages of 12 and 17 reported having struggled recently with mental health issues. The overall suicide rate in Tehama and neighboring counties is more than twice the state average, and according to a 2017-2019 survey, more than a third of 11th graders in Tehama County reported feelings of depression.  

    Research shows that children ages 2 to 8 in rural communities consistently have higher rates of mental, behavioral and developmental disorders than children in urban communities, largely due to financial difficulties and geographic isolation. Students in Tehama County tend to start struggling with mental health issues at a younger age, said Savannah Kenyon, a parent to a fourth grader and an education behavior assistant at Red Bluff High School. 

    “Our neighbors could be acres and acres away, and we don’t know them by name — so there’s a lot less socializing,” Kenyon said. “A lot of our students also come from a family of addiction or have to be the providers for their families.” 

    In Tehama County, nearly 1 in 5 children, and a third of children under the age of 5, live below the poverty line. The county also ranks sixth in California for the number of children who have experienced two or more adverse childhood events, such as abuse, neglect, substance use or mental health problems, known to have lasting impacts on health and well-being. 

    “It’s hard to see our children dealing with adult problems, and as a result, adult mental health problems, way younger,” Kenyon said. 

    Wellness coaches like Thomas and Peery try to understand students’ needs as they evolve. Thomas said that in the past school year, they saw an increase in students referred for substance use intervention, mirroring troubling rates of adolescent drug use and fatalities in the U.S.

    In response to the increase in referrals, Thomas and Peery decided to become trained in Mindfully Based Substance Abuse Treatment, a program focused on building emotional awareness and examining cravings and triggers in youth substance use. In the process, they also learned about students dealing with unhealthy relationships or domestic violence at home. In response, Peery developed and ran a 16-week curriculum in three schools and a juvenile detention center, teaching students how to identify and respond to issues like abuse and family trauma.  

    Charlotte Peery, certified wellness coach I in Tehama County.

    Peery is often the first point of contact for a student struggling with mental health issues. On paper, her job spans the next two or three steps in the process — a mental health screening, a mindfulness and stress reduction session, or a referral to a specialist. But in practice, she hopes to strengthen the long-term network of care available to students. She has partnered with the Tehama County Department of Behavioral Health, which provides substance use recovery treatment, and Empower Tehama, which helps victims of domestic violence, for example. 

    “I’m making connections with drug and alcohol counselors and becoming more aware of which clinicians are accepting new clients once students transition out of our program,” Peery said. “To have that open communication, I’ve seen a huge shift in the way all of our partners are working together.” 

    School-based support is likely the most effective way to reach Tehama County students in need, she said, because most families cannot easily access major services, in part due to a disproportionate shortage of mental health providers, 

    “We’ve been able to provide more services to the farthest outreaches of our community and helped build rapport with every school,” Thomas said. “We go out to all 33 schools in the county to provide check-ins and open up the doors for our clinicians to meet with high-need students.” 

    Early intervention matters 

    After her daughter’s school shut down at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, just as she was starting transitional kindergarten, Kenyon noticed that her daughter was missing some key developmental milestones. 

    “We were realizing that the kids were not socializing at some of their peak times when they should be learning social skills,” Kenyon said. “I knew at an early age that she was going to be struggling with her ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), so we knew that starting young was going to be the best way to help her in the long run.”

    Early intervention for Kenyon’s daughter began with a screening and diagnosis of ADHD. From there, she said, her daughter’s counselor and teacher helped with little things like — motivating her through action-oriented feedback on her work, or teaching her mindful, deep breathing when she feels anxious — that allowed her daughter to handle emotional distress as well as social expression and inattentiveness in the classroom on a day-by-day basis.   

    “We’re always having open communication with the counselor or teacher. Being able to tell them, ‘We struggled last night, so she might be a little tired today; she might be a little bit emotional,’ has been imperative to her success,” Kenyon said. 

    Research shows that early, multidisciplinary interventions, such as a combination of school-based programs and family support initiatives, significantly reduce the risk of carrying mental health disorders into adulthood. 

    School shutdowns during the pandemic compounded the youth mental health crisis in California. About 65% of young people with depression did not receive treatment during the pandemic, while the rate of suicide among adolescents rose by 20%. 

    “We saw heightened anxiety, depression and delays in social development for students that had gone longer without intervention than they typically would have if they were on a school campus,” said JoNell Wallace, school mental health and wellness team coordinator at the Tehama County Department of Education. “We’re now starting interventions in third or fourth grade that we would’ve caught in second grade.” 

    Jacque Thomas, certified wellness coach II in Tehama County.

    Despite the additional support, Thomas said she has been flooded with students approaching her for help (“which is amazing,” she adds) and that students’ needs in Tehama County are still outpacing available staff and services at schools. She frequently eats in her car on the way to a counseling session, or sometimes skips lunch altogether, to fit another student into her schedule. 

     “You start to get stretched thin, and I don’t want any one student to have to be on a waitlist,” Thomas said.

    Understaffing has also underscored the weaknesses of the referral system, a process through which schools assess students and refer them to wellness coaches, depending on the level of support they need. Schools do not always connect students to the support they need because of how time-consuming referrals can be.

    “I think schools would much rather prefer it if we were on site,” Thomas said. “And that’s the goal — that more schools are qualified to have more wellness coaches, so their referral process will be in-house, and those services can start happening with a lesser barrier.”

    There will be some relief starting this fall, when five additional certified wellness coaches will be placed at elementary and middle schools in Tehama County. Kenyon said the expanded service is a win for students like her daughter. 

    “She used to hide under the table if she got any type of feedback or if she felt like she had done something wrong,” Kenyon said. “But she hasn’t done it this entire year, which is such a big change from how she would try and escape her feelings.”

    Now, with help from her counselors, coaches and teachers, her daughter comes home excited to talk about her day, feeling more confident and self-assured. 

    “Knowing that she’s coping, and for me to have help beyond just parental help — I know she’s a hundred percent supported through these programs,” Kenyon said.





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  • West Contra Costa Unified loses big chunk of federal grant to support students’ mental health

    West Contra Costa Unified loses big chunk of federal grant to support students’ mental health


    West Contra Costa Unified School District administration building.

    Credit: Louis Freedberg / EdSource

    TOP TAKEAWAYS
    • West Contra Costa Unified anticipates it will receive only about $600,000 of $4.2 million it was awarded last year. 
    • The cut is part of a big push by the Trump administration to roll back or eliminate funding to support student mental health in schools across the nation. 
    • The district was one of only three school districts in California to be awarded grants from the Mental Health Professional Services program.

    The West Contra Costa Unified School District is the latest school district in California to feel the direct impact of the Trump Administration’s elimination of a range of grant programs approved by the U.S. Department of Education during the Biden administration.

    At its meeting on Wednesday night, Interim Superintendent Kim Moses told board members, who were caught unawares by the news, that she had received a letter the previous day from the department of education indicating that the five-year, $4.2 million grant awarded last fall will be cut to one year.

    The letter stated that the grant was no longer “aligned with the current goals of the administration,” she said.

    As a result of the cut, the district anticipates it will only receive about $600,000 of the funds it was expecting, all of which must be spent between August and December of this year.

    Board president Leslie Reckler summarized her reaction in two words: “Total bummer.”

    The district was one of three in California to receive a five-year grant last fall. They were among 46 grants awarded last year under the Mental Health Services Professional Grant program begun by the Biden Administration.

    The grant was supposed to enable the San Francisco Bay Area district to address the mental health needs of its students by placing graduate student counseling interns in its schools, in collaboration with San Jose State University and St. Mary’s College in Oakland.

    The goal of the program, as described in the Federal Register, is “to support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers.”

    Interim Superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified, Kim Moses
    Caption: Courtesy West Contra Costa Unified

    Moses said she was taken aback by the news of the drastic reduction.  “Of all the things that I am worrying about being reduced or taken away, I didn’t have this grant in mind,” she said in an interview after the meeting. “The grant is to build our workforce (of mental health workers). How could building our workforce and supporting students with their mental health needs be against what the administration stands for?”

    School board member Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy described the funding cut as “atrocious.”  “This is just another way they (the Trump administration) are going to start hurting our kids, our staff, our school district, because of what we stand for, because of what we look like.”

    The drastic grant cutback comes as a blow to the district, which has made significant progress over the past year in cutting major budget deficits and averting the prospect of a state takeover.  Especially since the pandemic, educators have realized that addressing the mental health needs of students is essential to their ultimate academic success.  A particular challenge has been to boost the number of school mental health professionals, especially those reflecting the backgrounds of students.

    The reduction appears to be part of an aggressive drive by the administration to eliminate mental health programs serving schools. On the same day West Contra Costa heard about its grant reduction,  the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Education is moving to terminate $1 billion in mental health grants to schools, signed into law by President Biden after the school shooting massacre in Uvalde, Texas in 2022.

    The district applied for the funds in the spring of 2024 and was awarded them in the fall. It had been working on signing a Memorandum of Understanding to begin implementing the program this fall.

    The funds were designated to be spent in “high-need” school districts like West Contra Costa Unified, where nearly two-thirds of its almost 30,000 students qualify for free and reduced-price meals.

    Program probably targeted because of emphasis on diversity

    What almost certainly caught the Trump administration’s eye was the emphasis on diversity in the grant application guidelines, a term the current government is using as a rationale to cut federal funds to education institutions at all levels. 

    One of the goals of the program, according to the guidelines, is to “increase the number and diversity of high-quality, trained providers available to address the shortages of mental health services professionals in schools served by high-need districts.”

    The mental health professionals serving students in those districts, according to the guidelines, “should reflect the communities, identities, races, ethnicities, abilities, and cultures of the students in the high-need districts, including underserved students.”

    “We considered appealing, but the reality is that they just erased this whole grant, and everybody is in the same boat,” interim Supt. Moses said. “This isn’t a case of  ‘we picked on you because you’re doing something wrong, we picked on you because the grant is going away.’”

    Looking forward, board member Gonzalez-Hoy said, “We must just continue to reassure our students that even if we have less resources, we are here to support and protect them, and we will give them what we can with what we have.”  

    Other districts that received grants under the program are Trinity Alps Unified and the Wheatland Union High School District, both in Northern California.  Also receiving grants are the Marin County Office of Education, Cal State East Bay and the University of Redlands, as well as two charter schools, Entrepreneur High School in San Bernardino and Academia Avance in Los Angeles.





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