Grantee Highlights
As NCSSLE provides specialized direct assistance and training to a set of U.S. Department of Education funded grantees, we collect highlights to feature helpful examples and lessons learned to the field. Below we provide a range of grantee highlights you can browse through or search by state or topic.
Displaying 29 Grantee Highlight(s).When it comes to effectively partnering with institutes of higher education (IHEs), Hennessey Lustica, PhD, Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), and Karen Horn, MSW are seasoned professionals. Hennessey is the Community Schools Mental Health Director at Sodus Central School District and Mental Health Service Professional Grant Director, and Karen is an Educational Consultant for School Mental Health Professionals at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI), as well as a School-Based Mental Health grant recipient.
Hennessey’s experience as a school counseling intern as well…
Mental Health Service Professional grant recipients Joseph Wharff and Jamey Petersen have maintained successful partnerships in rural communities. Joseph is the Associate Director of the Office of Student Services at the Virginia Department of Education and State Coordinator of the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health, and Jamey is the Coordinated School Health Director for the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
For Jamey, partnerships are essential in a rural state with many isolated communities. The Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) collaborates with The University of…
Mental Health Service Professional grant recipients Greg Hickey and Heather Ormiston, PhD, know how to partner strategically and effectively.
Greg, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Mental Health Specialist with Region 15 Education Service Center in Texas, works with school counselors in 45 districts, whereas Heather, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and Health Service Provider in Psychology, and the Director of the School-Based Mental Health Research and Training Initiative at Indiana University Bloomington, works with just one district in Indiana and with school psychologists…
Mental Health Service Professional grant recipients Michelle Warren, Ed.D., Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) at Osage County Interlocal Cooperative (OCIC) in Oklahoma and Christine Judson, Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from Chicago Public Schools, share a common goal of recruiting and retaining school based mental health providers in their districts. In order to do this, both Michelle and Christine emphasize the importance of workforce development initiatives in providing quality training services, field experience, and certification opportunities to graduate…
Dr. Teri Lawler, Project Director for the Trauma Recovery Demonstration Grant program at the Delaware State Department of Education, credits the success of Project THRIVE (Trauma Health Recovery InnoVation & Engagement) to the cross-sector partnerships she and her team have initiated and maintained. Project THRIVE provides free mental health services and trauma-informed support to eligible Delaware students grades pre-k through 12 attending Delaware public schools, private schools, parochial schools, and homeschools. These services assist students struggling with traumatic situations such…
Rockingham County Schools Recognized for Model Social Emotional & Mental Health Program for Students
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction [NCDPI] leadership have recognized Rockingham County Schools [RCS] for its model K-12 mental health services program. NCDPI officials asked Stephanie Ellis, Executive Director of Behavioral Health, Crisis Intervention, and Student Safety and Mental Health Service Professional Project Director at RCS to make a site visit, in recognition of her team’s work in building a full continuum of support for students’ mental health and emotional wellbeing. The visiting team of officials intends to help advocate for more North Carolina school districts to…
The Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health aims to increase the quantity and quality of school mental health services in high-need communities. To do this, they provide a suite of professional development experiences which include tele-mentoring groups using the Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model. ECHO meetings occur virtually once per month and involve university faculty members and practicing school mental health professionals from partnering school districts. Each ECHO follows the same structure: introductions of all group members, a brief didactic…
The Ohio Departments of Education, Mental Health and Addiction Services and Public Safety created a School Wellness Toolkit in response to heightened school wellness needs that educators, school administrators, community organizations, behavioral health providers and other stakeholders have identified.
The Departments collected information through several listening sessions and surveys to best understand what was happening in schools across the state. The Protecting Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory also identified that mental health needs in young people continue to…
Focusing on reintegration in the 2021-22 school year to ensure the success of students and staff upon return to full in-person instruction, the Pasadena United School District (PUSD), a Mental Health Service Professional grantee in California, developed an enhanced version of their curriculum that included visual arts, mental health, and academics. As part of this initiative, PUSD created virtual wellness centers for staff and students that includes a “PUSD Wellness Studio”, a Padlet for staff use only. As Dr. Julianne Reynoso, Assistant Superintendent, Student Wellness and Support Services…
During individual supervision and interaction, staff of the Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) school social work department recognized that their interns felt great anxiety before professional interviews due to lack of prior experience. It was then that the Clinical Grant Facilitator felt that a mock interview would be advantageous with assisting the candidate in learning how to respond to challenging questions, developing interview strategies, improving communication skills, and reducing stress before an actual job interview.
Mock Interview Rubric Development
In collaboration with…
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is using the School-Based Mental Health Services grant program to increase recruitment and retention of school mental health providers by creating the Virginia Career and Learning Center (CLC) website. Participating LEAs with demonstrated need can access quality professional development modules (currently 90+ modules), guidance on licensing requirements, and information and resources on school-based mental health careers. The CLC also serves as a repository for available school mental health positions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The site…
In Virginia, school-based mental health services are provided primarily by school mental health providers: school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers. Their capacity to offer mental health services depends greatly on the needs of the school division, their responsibilities within the LEA, and ratios of provider-to-student populations. The Code of Virginia § 22.1-253.13:2 delineates staffing ratios for school counselors based on student enrollment through Virginia’s Standards of Quality. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) continues to advocate for reduced…
To support training interns through the work of the Mental Health Service Professional grant, the Pennsauken Public Schools (NJ) team developed what they call “Mastery Mondays,” a full-day training seminar program.
On Mastery Mondays, interns are introduced to counseling techniques through immersive exposure in group counseling modalities. There are also presentations on topics such as behavior de-escalation, understanding the state’s special education code, and various learning styles. Activities to date have included roleplays in active listening and facilitating SEL lessons, and…
A school social worker and social work intern for Del Norte County, California’s Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP) demonstration grant are implementing a peer-led suicide prevention program, Sources of Strength, among high-risk youth at Sunset High School in Crescent City. The local United Indian Health Services has partnered with the school to support this program with assistance from a SAMHSA Garrett Lee Smith suicide prevention grant. Numerous students embrace their roles in the program with enthusiasm, and there is even potential to “extend the pipeline” for new school mental…
The Osage County Interlocal Cooperative, Oklahoma [OCIC], as part of its Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant initiative, Project PREPARE is recruiting, training, and coaching school psychology, counseling, and social worker interns in the provision of high quality virtual and hybrid mental health services and caseload management. OCIC’s school mental health professionals have developed virtual “one-stop” school counseling centers that allow students, families and educators to learn more about their counselor and available services; refer to and request individual, group,…
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), as part of its Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant initiative, Collaborative Internship for All (CIA), is recruiting, training and coaching school counseling interns en route to placing them in high-needs school communities. In its efforts to promote CIA internally and externally, and recruit and retain graduate students, the grant team discovered that there was untapped talent among its interns.
The clinical grant coordinator began to have interns present on a topic of interest or need and identify their interests and talents during…
The School District of Philadelphia is using their Project Prevent grant to increase capacity to identify, assess, and serve students exposed to pervasive violence and help ensure that students are offered mental health services for trauma and/or anxiety. Through Project Prevent funding, they are implementing evidence-based violence prevention strategies at all three tiers within the PBIS Framework.
To implement their Project Prevent violence prevention strategies to reduce the likelihood of students later committing violent acts, they are using an implementation science approach to inform…
As an innovative adaptation to the sudden disconnection of students from their school community over the course of the past year, the student support team at Del Norte County, California schools, a Mental Health Services Professional grantee, arranged to convert its Yoga Calm, an evidence-based program, to a combination in-person/Zoom! platform. As a trauma-informed program, Yoga Calm was taught in classrooms prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the school district began to adjust to the pandemic’s restrictions, the need for tools to manage stress and anxiety was even greater than it had been,…
The Public Schools of Robeson County, North Carolina [PSRC], as part of its Project SCORE (School Counseling Opportunities in Robeson Education) Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant, has invested creativity, collaboration, and energy to ensure strong connections for students’ families despite public health imperatives for physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The district has initiated regular family support opportunities through scheduled on-line events, and maintains open communication, in part through an electronic newsletter. Project SCORE has developed and…
The Charleston County School District (CCSD) in South Carolina, a Project Prevent grantee, recently adopted CASEL’s Reunite, Renew, and Thrive: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Roadmap for Reopening School. As part of Critical Practice 2 of the approach (design opportunities where adults can connect, heal, and build their capacity to support students), the district committed to providing a more universal approach to adult mental health and self-care.
In support of the grant, when teacher leaders made a formal request for additional mental health supports, the district capitalized on…
While preparing for Year 2 of Pennsauken Public School District’s Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant, grant co-director and school psychologist Alexandra Pensiero realized that having “an in-person presence” would be important to students in a virtual environment. Ms. Pensiero and her team created webpage on their website dedicated to Mental Health. Within, they share general information, information about the grant, and Bitmoji classrooms for the district mental health providers and mental health interns to introduce themselves to students and to offer resources.…
Through their Rural West Texas Mental Health Educational Learning Partnership (HELP) grant, Region 15 Education Service Center in San Angelo, TX has partnered with Angelo State University (member of the Texas Tech University system) to recruit provisionally licensed school counselors from the M.S. in Professional School Counseling program for placement in 43 participating school districts in newly created positions. This partnership allows for reimbursement of tuition costs for participating students, in addition to the provision of quality social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum to…
Charter School for Applied Technologies (NY) used Elementary and Secondary Education School Counseling funds to hire two school counselors. The counselors played an integral role in creating a school-wide positive behavioral intervention and supports (PBIS) framework. Through PBIS, students have learned to take ownership of their behavior and recognize and use strategies to support their personal challenges. During the 2016-17 school year, Charter School for Applied Technologies witnessed a notable decrease in incidents of harassment and bullying, even as enrollment has increased steadily.…
Murrieta Valley Unified School District, an Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grant recipient, won the 2017 H.P. McDaniel Foundation Group Award for their development of R.A.I.N. Elementary Counseling. Counselors in this district developed a model comprehensive program and completed significant research resulting in a major impact for the counseling field in the state of California. R.A.I.N. stands for:
Re-engaging Students,
Advocating for students and parents
Intervening with students, parents, teachers and administrators
Nurturing all students through the delivery of academic,…
Baltimore City Schools is utilizing its Promoting Student Resilience grant to establish a cohesive response to youth mental health needs, particularly in relation to trauma. Grant funds have been used to hire a trauma manager and trainers, and to provide a mandatory learning module on trauma-informed practices to all school teachers and staff. This article provides an overview of Baltimore City’s need for this work and its efforts to more effectively address the mental health needs of students.
Buncombe County Schools identified evidence-based strategies to improve social and emotional skills in students, and a reliable way to assess students skills, in an effort to close achievement gaps among their students. Their social and emotional curriculum included Second Step, Mindful Schools, and the Compassionate Schools framework. Schools used the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment to measure students' social-emotional competencies and the impact of social and emotional skills interventions. This article provides the criteria they used to select the assessment that best suited their…
Series builds off of last year’s Trauma Trainings for Educators that included an introduction to understanding Compassion Fatigue. This series will utilize reflective practices, videos, exercises, and collegial support to help teachers manage the challenges of this work while holding in mind each educator’s unique gifts and wisdom. The first session was titled "Reconnecting with Your Teacher’s Wisdom / Honoring Your Battle Wounds" and allowed teachers to spend time with colleagues, reconnect with their reasons for becoming an educator, reflect upon their experiences in the classroom, and…
Presents findings for Michigan's Safe and Supportive Schools (S3) grant sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Contains grantee progress and highlights: 65% of schools reported improved school safety scores, 52% of schools reported a decrease in bullying, 30% of Safe and Supportive Schools received "Reward" status, and 70% of S3 2010 Priority schools moved off the Priority List. This final report also presents trends in statewide graduation rates over the course of the grant, previews key initiatives, and details lessons learned.
Demonstrates through video Kentucky Valley Education Cooperative's adaptation of “Ripple Effects,” an online supported social and emotional learning program, for a rural setting. Kentucky Valley plans to implement it in over 70 schools by the end of their grant. Ripple Effects is an evidence based, trauma informed tool that can be used to support PBIS, Behavioral RTI, risk behavior prevention, and more.