Wisconsin kids struggling with mental health get budget help | Education

Officials in the state Department of Public Instruction say a new batch of state funding for school-based mental health programming will help the ongoing effort to stem rates of depression and anxiety among Wisconsin’s young people. 

Over the next two-year budget cycle, Wisconsin schools will collectively receive $50 million in state funding to pay for school-based mental health programs, with $40 million distributed the first budget year and another $10 million paid out during the second year of the biennium. 

The funding comes after President Donald Trump’s administration decided in May to discontinue a federal funding stream for school mental health and canceled $8 million in federal grant funding already promised to Wisconsin. 

The state budget lump sum was a result of a long period of negotiations between Gov. Tony Evers and Republicans in the Legislature and ended up restoring $10 million that GOP lawmakers on the powerful finance committee had initially cut. 

The funding will go toward mental health and well-being programming and support for students and staff at public schools and independent charter schools. 

School-based mental health is often thought of as support for students with severe mental illnesses or school-based therapy, said Libby Strunz, a school mental health consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. 

“But when we talk about comprehensive school mental health, it’s not limited to just those things,” Strunz said. “It also includes services and supports that help to promote social emotional learning for all students, help to build student and staff mental health literacy, help to reduce stigma around mental health and help to foster a positive and inclusive school climate, and really just eliminate systemic barriers for students to be successful in their wellness and academically as well.”

This often includes peer-to-peer programming, taking into consideration that kids sometimes feel more comfortable sharing with each other at first. Other efforts center on suicide prevention, bullying prevention, mental health screening and bridges to family and individual therapy resources. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, students have reported higher rates of depression and anxiety, with those symptoms increased among girls, low-income students, students of color and LGBTQ+ students. 

“We know that chronic stress, which can sometimes be tied to marginalization and discrimination, are factors that can impact youth mental health,” Strunz said. “And we know that there’s some groups of students that are placed at higher risk than others.”

Providing mental health programming in educational settings makes sense, Strunz said, because that’s where children spend the most time. 

“Through the investment that our state has already made in comprehensive school mental health systems, our schools are really uniquely equipped to help do both preventative and responsive work related to student mental health,” she said.

Studies have shown that establishing a foundation of mental health support in schools improves emotional, social and academic outcomes for teachers and students, said Cristin Jones, another school mental health consultant with the DPI.

“On the staff side of things, looking to reduce teacher burnout, improve classroom climate, increase staff retention, all are very important here, on both ends, in supporting our students and supporting our staff and then creating better school communities for everyone,” Jones said.

The services that the funding will go toward are modeled off of Evers’ Get Kids Ahead program created in 2022 that provided $30 million across two years using federal American Rescue Plan Act money.

The deadline to spend the money was Dec. 31, 2024, after which point schools would need to return any unused funds. 

“Every single dollar of that funding was spent down,” Strunz said. “And I think it demonstrates the need for that continued funding as part of our state biennial budget.”

It’s anticipated that this round of money will be divvied among school districts based on student numbers, as previous state funding for school-based mental health has been distributed. 

Madison Metropolitan School District is the second-largest in the state with more than 25,000 students.