States Face Challenges Building a School Mental Health Workforce

With more children and young adults experiencing mental health emergencies over the last 10 years, state and federal leaders made millions of dollars available to school districts for developing school-based mental health services and hiring and training school counselors, psychologists, and social workers. Yet schools still face considerable barriers in attracting and keeping these professionals.

School-based mental health services encompass a continuum of supports and interventions to promote mental health, identify youth with unmet mental health needs, and facilitate access to mental health treatment either in school or through referrals to community providers. A range of mental health professionals—counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health clinicians—deliver these supports. While each group of professionals is trained and certified to fulfill different roles in schools, each helps create safe, supportive learning environments. …