With an already dedicated and thriving School Mental Health Collaborative (SMHC) center
at the ±«Óătv (±«Óătv) College of Education, more support from the
federal government will expand its reach across the United States in the creation
of a newly developed training center called METRICS. With the University of Wisconsin-Madison
(UW-Madison) as the prime recipient, ±«Óătv along with the University of Iowa, and the
University of California, Santa Barbara have been awarded a four-year, $10.4 million
grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to launch and operate this national
center to expand the nation’s school-based mental health workforce of school psychologists,
social workers, school counselors, and other practitioners.
The is run by co-executive directors, Nate von der Embse, PhD, Evan Dart, PhD, Shannon
Suldo, PhD, and director, David Wheeler, PhD. The SMHC was first established in 2019
by these researchers and colleagues at UW-Madison. The goal of the collaborative is
to partner with research centers across the U.S. with a shared mission and vision
that will improve access to school mental health services. The new center is designed to enhance K-12 students' access to essential mental health services
in schools by tackling the nationwide shortage of school-based mental health professionals.
“The national technical assistance center – METRICS – is a logical extension of the
SMHC’s purpose and mission of facilitating access to high quality, evidence-based
school mental health services through the preparation and training of competent and
culturally responsive school-based mental health service providers and expands the
Center’s footprint and impact through participation in a national network,” said Wheeler.
von der Embse, professor of school psychology, is the principal investigator for METRICS
at ±«Óătv. “We talk about the 20/20 phenomenon – 20 percent of kids across the United
States will have a mental health need. But of those kids, only 20 percent will receive
time and service to help them through the crisis,” said von der Embse. “Without an
increase in mental health professionals, kids across the nation will continue to struggle.
So, this is a critical and historic investment that gives us the opportunity to get
this right so the government continues to fund mental health professionals.”
The historic investment von der Embse refers to is made possible by the historic Bipartisan
Safer Communities Act, signed into law by the current presidential administration
to invest over $1 billion in school-based mental health programs in the next five
years. According to a DOE announcing this specific grant, federal officials said, “METRICS will meaningfully
change lives, by building a mental health infrastructure in schools and communities
across the country.”
This comes at a time when 70 percent of public schools in students seeking mental health services, and 29 percent of schools note an increase
in staff requesting mental health support.
Through over 250 grants awarded to training programs, school districts, and state
education agencies, the DOE is supporting the delivery of school-based mental health
services at a time that some are describing as a youth mental health crisis. Dart,
associate professor of school psychology at ±«Óătv, said, “Many recipients of these grants
are first-time grantees and need support to accomplish the activities and initiatives
they described in their proposals as well as assistance managing their grant. METRICS
primarily exists to support these grantees throughout the lifetime of their 5-year
projects to ensure that program objectives are met in a timely and effective manner.”
These grants aim to boost the number and diversity of skilled mental health service
providers, particularly in high-need districts facing significant staff shortages.
Notably, three of the grantees being supported by METRICS are close to home. Researchers
from the ±«Óătv College of Education and the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
received funding, as well as Tampa’s Hillsborough County Public Schools, the 7th largest
school district in the nation.
According to the the , the U.S. currently has a shortage of 100,000 school mental health staff. Suldo,
professor and director of clinical training of school psychology said, “Schools have
so few providers, oftentimes they are reacting in crisis response mode. Our goal is
to have more providers that are trained in best practices in the complete range of
services from prevention to promotion to early intervention. The center’s role is
to provide the full continuum of services from helping universities train the professionals,
to helping school districts recruit, hire, and retain these providers.”
Because of the work already accomplished by the SMHC, ±«Óătv and UW-Madison, along with
its two partner institutions, were primed to provide the support that the DOE needed.
METRICS is led by a national team of school-based mental health experts and supported
by coaches and other project staff. Dart said, “The support and resources we provide
to grantees is relevant to all school-based mental health professional training programs
and school districts and we hope to achieve a broader vision of providing similar
services nationwide beyond the lifetime of these specific grant projects.”
One requirement from the Department of Education is good outcome data and high-quality
information that will allow federal officials to evaluate the return on their investment.
“±«Óătv is the data foundation,” said von der Embse. While there is a great deal of cross
collaboration across the four participating universities, von der Embse’s site role
focuses on data analytics and quality improvement. “We are responsible for helping
grantees meet their annual targets and develop usable and actionable data so that
they can continue to be funded and, most importantly, recruit high quality professionals.”
This initial grant allows METRICS to build up its services and distribution to the
communities surrounding its four participating higher education institutions. To date,
METRICS has produced a robust and growing website with resources for professionals,
nationwide webinars, and individual coaching with grantees across the U.S. to help
them recruit school mental health providers. Long-term, and with additional government
funding, this collaborative will allow ±«Óătv and its partners to expand mental health
services to all schools across the country; they will reach, recruit, and train enough
professionals to alleviate one of the biggest challenges facing children and their
futures.
Looking forward, von der Embse said, “We’re excited about the ability to produce and
host free evidence-based interventions and assessments that schools can download and
use, which we think is going to be a game changer. Schools across the country are
going to have access to these high-quality resources that they typically don’t have.
We look forward to advancing access to mental health supports for kids across the
country."
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Leadership team from the School Mental Health Collaborative, and recipients of the METRICS grant (from left), Evan Dart, PhD, David Wheeler, PhD, Shannon Suldo, PhD, and Nate von der Embse, PhD.