Senator Hassan, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Build on Program that Places Mental Health Professionals in Manchester Schools

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Jon Tester (D-MT) recently introduced the Creating Access and Resources in Education (CARE) for Student Mental Health Act. This bipartisan legislation will help schools in New Hampshire and across the country continue to recruit, train, and retain mental health professionals through strengthening programs in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that Senator Hassan and colleagues passed into law in 2022.

Through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) receives $760,000 per year, for five years, in federal funding to support its collaboration with the Manchester School District, and other high-need school districts, which has helped the university develop a School Social Work Track and a graduate certificate focused on trauma, diversity, and inclusion. UNH students in the program are placed in Manchester schools and provide high-quality services to students in need. The CARE for Student Mental Health Act will continue and strengthen this federal program and an additional one that further helps schools recruit, train, and retain mental health professionals.

“Students have been open in sharing their mental health challenges with me and highlighting the need for better access to treatment, which is why I am working with my colleagues across the aisle to get more mental health professionals directly into schools,” said Senator Hassan. “With assistance through a federal grant program, the University of New Hampshire has collaborated with the Manchester School District to train and place more mental health professionals in schools. This new bipartisan legislation will help grow this and other impactful partnerships so that schools have skilled professionals who are qualified to meet students’ mental health needs.”

“Far too many young people struggle with their mental health, and far too many schools lack the resources to recognize and care for students who may be in crisis,” said Senator Cornyn. “To break this vicious cycle, our legislation would help connect schools with the potentially life-saving mental health resources provided by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to hire additional school psychologists and invest in the wellbeing of their students.”

“Tackling the serious gaps in school mental health is complicated and takes collaboration and commitment from a number of state and federal stakeholders to create and execute a shared vision of student and family health and well-being,” said Mary Schuh, research associate professor of education at the University of New Hampshire. “The UNH School Mental Health Program and Manchester School District are showing great progress addressing these issues by training and placing social workers in local schools to help and improve student outcomes.  We are thankful to Senator Hassan and her colleagues in the Senate for introducing the CARE for Student Mental Health Act, which will help sustain those efforts into the future.”

One in five children have a diagnosable mental or behavioral health disorder. Despite this growing crisis, a majority of school districts have limited or no access to school-based mental health professionals such as psychologists, counselors, and social workers.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act made historic investments in school-based mental health and supportive services, including $1 billion for the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program – which UNH and the Manchester School District use – and School-Based Mental Health Services Program to hire more school psychologists, counselors, social workers, and other mental health services providers.

The Creating Access and Resources in Education (CARE) for Student Mental Health Act would strengthen these programs by:

• Clarifying the distinction, purpose, and allowable activities of each grant to help eligible entities quickly determine which grant best meets their needs;
• Requiring the U.S. Department of Education to improve notification and technical assistance for potential grantees to enable more school districts with limited administrative capacity to apply and compete for these federal grants;
• Authorizing and streamlining the Strengthening the Pipeline of School-Based Mental Health Services Providers Program, which supports partnerships between colleges, universities, and school districts to increase the number of properly trained school-based mental health service professionals;
• And authorizing the School-Based Mental Health Services Program that assists high-need school districts to recruit, hire, and retain school-based mental health personnel for students to remain healthy, engaged, and safe at school.

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