The San Mateo County Office of Education
believes more could be done to support the mental health of local public school
students, according to Superintendent Anne Campbell, and officials will look to
help school districts across the county find additional funding to provide such
services.
Campbell authored a response to a recent
San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury report which finds local elementary and high
schools need to provide better access to mental health care programs for
students.
The response letter, which is set to be
approved by the San Mateo County Board of Education during an upcoming meeting
Wednesday, Sept. 2, addresses a variety of findings and recommendations from
the grand jury, and heeds a call for the office to help track down more money
for mental health services.
The county Office of Education will help
try to help lock down money from Measure A, the county’s sales tax proceeds,
among other sources, which can contribute to offering local students more
mental health care at their school sites, according to Campbell.
“SMCOE currently works with local school
districts to develop mental health programs and fully expects to continue doing
so,” Campbell wrote in her response. “SMCOE will also explore and assist local
school districts in searching for sources of funds, including Measure A.”
The grand jury report, released in June,
found mental health care is especially necessary when offered at school sites,
because that is where students spend a majority of their day, and trained staff
on site could offer invaluable assistance in helping children feeling depressed
or suicidal. As well, early treatment of mental health issues can lead to
improved student success rates.
The county Office of Education does not
oversee all county schools, but does offer a variety of education, business and
service support programs to local districts, including coordinating some mental
health services. The primary responsibility of the office is to educate
students enrolled in court or community schools, and special education
programs.
And though the office will continue
working to help the roughly 94,000 students across the county who could benefit
from increased access to mental health care services, local districts should
ultimately be in charge of implementing the programs, according to Campbell’s
response.
“Such coordination is better done at the
district and school site,” Campbell wrote.
Much of the difficulty associated with
providing adequate mental health care at schools stems from only a fraction of
the county student population being publicly insured and eligible to be treated
locally on their campus by the county’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services
program. The other roughly 61,000 who are independently insured must be
referred to private services, which do not offer care at school sites,
according to the grand jury report.
There are also hurdles associated with
offering transportation to students for off-site care, which increases the
demand of such services to be offered locally, according to the report.
Money from local education foundations,
the general fund of school districts and revenue from Measure A, the sales tax
which county voters approved in 2012, are among the sources that should spent
to improve mental health care access for students, according to the grand jury
report, and the county Office of Education is identified in needing to assist
districts in finding as much money as possible for the programs.
Those funds can be paid to
community-based organizations which can provide care to a wide variety of
students, according to the grand jury report, similar to support that the Edgewood
Center for Children and Families offers to students at Roy Cloud Elementary
School in Redwood City, which is funded by a local education foundation.
Community-based organizations also serve
students taught by the County Office of Education, according to Campbell’s
response.
The county Office of Education will not
comply will a request by the grand jury to help establish a record-keeping
system of all student mental health issues which surface on county campuses,
according to the response, because much of that information is confidential and
specific to local districts.
But officials will help contribute to
districts establishing data storage and record-keeping systems which could help
organize the variety of services that may be available, according to Campbell’s
response.
Ultimately, the county Office of
Education will try to offer as much assistance to local school districts as
possible, while searching for more revenue to support such programs.
“SMCOE will continue its work in
coordinating mental health services throughout the local schools and in
advocating for increased funding for all students,” wrote Campbell.
Local school districts
across the county must author and approve their own responses to the grand jury
report.
August 31, 2015
The
Daily Journal
By
Austin Walsh
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