Coastal Bend awarded federal funding for school-based mental health
Two years after the school shooting in Uvalde inspired lawmakers to approve funding for youth mental health initiatives, about $5 million has been awarded to the Coastal Bend region to provide school-based mental health services.
Education Service Center Region 2 has been awarded $999,850 annually for the next five years. The center serves public school districts and charter schools in Nueces, San Patricio, Aransas, Kleberg, Kenedy, Jim Wells, Duval, McMullen, Live Oak and Bee counties.
Center Executive Director Esperanza Zendejas said the center pursued the funding to support small, rural school districts, but that all schools in the region will benefit.
The center is partnering with several smaller school districts, including districts in Agua Dulce, Bishop, Odem-Edroy, Taft, San Diego and Three Rivers, as well as Dr. M. L. Garza Gonzalez Charter School in Corpus Christi, to bring in part-time mental health counselors and mental health support personnel.
Additionally, the center will host trainings.
“For example, if we bring in a mental health expert to deal with student-related issues happening in school districts throughout the country, we would invite all the school districts to send representatives, such as their counselors, social workers or their nurses,” Zendejas said.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was signed by President Joe Biden in June 2022 and negotiated by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, resulting in modest changes to gun regulations and billions in funding for community violence interventions, state crisis intervention programs, school mental health services, community-based mental health, the national suicide prevention hotline and primary care supports for mental health.
“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is about mental health and school safety and ensuring that the tragedy that struck Uvalde was not in vain,” Cornyn said in Friday news release. “I’m grateful this law is putting more mental health professionals in communities and giving schools the resources needed to keep students, staff, and teachers safe.”
This month, the Biden administration announced $70 million in grants through the U.S. Department of Education’s School-Based Mental Health Services and Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration programs, including a grant to Education Service Center Region 2.
“We know that students are more likely to access mental health support if it’s offered in schools, and our educators and school communities are on the front lines when a student is struggling,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in an Oct. 17 news release.
Across the country, this batch of funding will help train and hire an additional 4,000 mental health professionals. In total, the programs are projected to add 18,000 school-based mental health professionals to the workforce, according to the Oct. 17 news release.
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