Schools Draft Mental Health Policy

February 8, 2010

It seems only formalities stand between Cache County schools and their first student mental health policy.

After hearing a draft policy during last week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Steve Norton said he doesn’t think there is any question about whether it will be approved.

“We’ve been wanting to do something like this for a long time,” he said.

After receiving the Integrated School Mental Health Systems Project grant, one of 17 awarded in the nation, a district student mental health policy has been drafted by Jack Robinson and Stacie Stewart.

Robinson, the district’s coordinator of student mental health services, and Stewart, grants coordinator, have been working on the policy since June, when they received the two-year grant of almost $400,000. They said the draft was completed with the help of the District Student Mental Health Committee, Bear River Mental Health and other organizations, and principals and staff at schools in the district.

Robinson called the policy an integration of “the best of the best.” It allows for a systematic approach to mental health, with every member of a school’s staff — certified and classified — involved in offering interventions.

Stewart said the purpose of the mental health grant is to help create “a positive environment” in schools.

“When we started this and when people would ask us about it, they felt like this great big grant was to provide treatment to some small percentage of very, you know, emotionally disturbed people. And that’s not what it’s about. It’s about a comprehensive, positive approach to fostering mental health,” Stewart said. “And mental health, in that frame of reference, is not just the absence of mental illness, it’s feeling happy. You have a sense of belonging and that this is a warm, kind place to be.”

The “3-Gear 3-Tier Model” presented Thursday provides for intervention at every level of the model. Robinson, who is the former Mountain Crest High School principal, said the proposed policy is a data-driven, research-based integration of local needs and a national approach.

Tier 1, Universal Level, addresses “school-wide behavior interventions and support.” Robinson said this could be something like school-wide programs, student recognition, assemblies or positive interaction. Stewart said these practices are programs that are simply part of day-to-day motions in schools, like teachers interacting with students between classes in a middle school or awarding tickets for good behavior in an elementary school.

“It’s just part of how the school runs,” she said.

Robinson said students feeling comfortable at school is “the overarching umbrella,” whether it be they feel comfortable because they have issues and know where to go for help, or they don’t have issues and can enjoy being at school.

Tier 1, he said, involves every student in the school regardless.

Interventions on the Targeted Level, Tier 2, include Student Assistance Team plans, setting behavioral goals, peer tutors and meetings with principals and parents.

Tier 3, Intensive Level, recommends Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) or problem-solving models. Robinson said when a school has a Tier 3 student and the people there have tried different interventions that haven’t worked, the mental health policy will allow them be able to call Bear River Mental Health and get a staff member who can help recommend the next step. He said that’s a relationship schools have been missing.

“We never had that before, not that kind of connection,” Robinson said.

He said other school districts that have had this grant have seen behavioral referrals decrease, attendance increase and grades go up.

If implemented, the policy is something each school and each grade will cater to respective needs and challenges, Stewart said. Schools just need to have something applicable to the three tiers, she said, determined by what they think is best.

“We’re not going to pretend that we know what’s good for all 15,000 students,” she said.

Most of the money from the grant will be spent on staff development and training, something Robinson called “the nucleus for the success of the program.”

As soon as the board approves the policy, which will still be revised, implementation will begin, Robinson said. He said he is anticipating a vote March 18.

“The fact that we are now able to have it all in a policy and some funding to help us implement that policy, which the grant provides, I don’t see any problems with it being approved,” Norton said.