Supporting school mental health systems in Minnesota
How to fund school mental health services in Minnesota
Summary: Youth across the United States are facing widespread mental health challenges, which in recent years have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Youth with marginalized racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities face even more mental health challenges.
Schools are an ideal setting to ensure youth receive the mental health services they need. In fact, mental health services provided through school reduce access barriers (e.g., insurance, transportation, location, and language) and increase opportunities for early identification to prevent mental health challenges from becoming more severe. School mental health services encompass universal mental health promotion, social-emotional screening, early intervention services, and individualized, intensive therapy.
One barrier that commonly prevents schools from providing such mental health services is funding. However, several federal and state sources are available to support school mental health services. Given the complexities of identifying and securing funding from an array of sources to support school mental health services, the purpose of this policy brief is to describe the funding sources that leaders in education may wish to pursue.
School mental health policy in Minnesota
Summary: Policy is a critical mechanism for ensuring systems, like schools, support children and youth’s well-being and mental health. Policies impact how people navigate and access resources, including mental health support. Government investment of time, money, and resources influences mental health management within communities and organizations, including schools. Collaborative efforts across key community players can fortify school mental health systems when targeted, meaningful statues are paired with incentives. The collaborative development and oversight of laws, policies, regulations, and resources offer powerful implications for healthy family functioning and the quality of children’s and youth’s wellbeing.
Given the complexities of developing and overseeing policy, the purpose of this brief is twofold:
- To provide a current snapshot of Minnesota’s school mental health policies for students and their related processes, as well as ...
- To offer recommendations for strengthening the policies and processes therein.