“I have a student who needs additional support because of social, emotional, and behavioral functioning challenges,” says a local parent, Lexi Hagedorn. “So when there aren’t enough people to do that, that can negatively impact them.”
A statewide effort to expand access to care for students’ behavioral health and wellness is reaching a major milestone at local schools.
“The state of California has invested about $5 billion in this sort of re-imagination and transformation and really thinking about how do we better support students and families,” says Melanie Crawford, director of the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education.
Crawford says that the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI) has been at work in schools for about five years now, but this year, new aspects have finally come to fruition.
Mainly, a new way for schools to fund youth mental and behavioral health care, called the CYBHI Fee Schedule.
It’s “a new sustainable way in which districts can get reimbursed from health insurance, for those services that we’ve already been providing,” Crawford says. “What it’s going to allow us to do is continue to maintain those supports and services for kids and hopefully one day even expand those services.”
San Luis Coastal Unified School District is the first in the county to follow this new model, with other districts to follow soon.
The initiative also aims to expand the workforce with a new type of practitioner in schools.
“Certified Wellness coaches who are brand new in our state,” says Crawford. “They are intended to support kids at school. Sort of that first layer of support, knowing that counselors take a long time to develop.”
Lexi Hagedorn is a parent of two students in the county. She’s noticed a lack of mental health resources at local schools.
“The school counselor who was there full time before, now, because of the budget deficits that San Luis Coastal had, she’s only there as a .7 FTE, and she’s split between that site and Teach Elementary School,” says Hagedorn.
She thinks the new initiative is important.
“As a parent who works full time and has a staff that works full time, it’s really hard for us to access any sort of behavioral mental health services outside of the school day,” she says. “Our kids are at school, they’re there all day, and it’s another way for our kids to get what they need.”
More information on the initiative can be found here.