School-based mental health services: Funding options and issues

Approximately 18% to 22% of youngsters experience mental health problems and, of those, 5% to 8% have diagnosable mental disorders or serious emotional disturbance. Children in foster care experience even higher levels of mental health problems. Unfortunately, only 7% to 16% of those children actually receive mental health services typically provided by schools. Consequently, school-based mental health services have moved in new directions in recent years, including increased training for teachers, infusion of more mental health practitioners, and renewed commitment to the wraparound approach. However, all of these require time and money. An often neglected area is the availability of federal funding intended to provide children and adolescents with access to mental health services in schools. The purpose of this article is to describe federal legislative mandates and initiatives that have funding mechanisms to provide mental health services to children in schools. The challenges schools face in implementing these services are also addressed.