Marin County Grand Jury
• 2024-2025
Reading, Writing, and Therapy: Mental Health Challenges in Our Schools
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 5 findings
F1
Many mental health issues result from social and cultural factors that lie outside the schools, but affect the ability of students to learn and schools to teach. This is a complex problem that the community must help address.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Health and Human Services and the Marin County Office of Education should direct the Marin Schools Wellness Collaborative to begin implementation of Strategy 6 of the Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan in the fall of 2020.
F2
Strategy 6 of the Marin County Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan, which includes a promise of support by the county and designates the Marin Schools Wellness Collaborative with responsibility for leading its implementation, presents an especially appropriate opportunity for addressing mental health needs.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
When funding becomes available, Marin County Office of Education should employ a full- time licensed therapist whose job is to help coordinate wellness services in the schools. Responsibilities would include finding and supervising interns.
F3
To help provide therapeutic counselors at affordable costs, most districts need assistance from licensed therapists who have the time and skills to recruit, train, and supervise interns from local graduate school programs.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
As soon as possible, Marin County Office of Education should designate staff to connect the schools with community agencies that can provide them with mental health services.
F4
Most districts need staffing help to identify, arrange, and maintain relationships with community mental health resources.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Marin County Office of Education should expand teacher and staff training and parent education around mental health issues.
F5
The Grand Jury recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained resources at all levels of government. However, the mental health concerns for students will remain. It is appropriate to expand teacher and staff training and parent education even while funding is sought for more costly programs.
No recommendations for this finding
Conclusions 1
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CL1There are serious mental health issues among high school youth in Marin County. Educators have shown great initiative and creativity in trying to address the mental health needs of their students, from finding ways to add therapists to adopting measures to reduce the need for therapists. Their work is laudable, but districts also need assistance to meet this challenge—and the school districts with fewer financial resources often have more students with unmet needs. The wellness centers in the Tamalpais district are impressive. With their more limited resources, the San Rafael and Novato districts are creating commendable alternative approaches. 30 Mental Health California, “California Mental Health Services Act (MHSA),” accessed March 29, 2020, https://www.mentalhealthca.org/faq-1. 31 Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, Mental Health Student Services Act—Request for Application,” accessed March 29, 2020, https://mhsoac.ca.gov/what-we-do/request-proposal/mhssa-rfa. Marin County Civil Grand Jury Page 16 of 18 Reading, Writing, and Therapy: Mental Health Challenges in Our Schools Establishing an adult presence in these centers will be important if students are to be directed to appropriate mental health services. Meanwhile, because the Tamalpais district schools have more wellness center staffing, including full-time licensed therapists, they can take much more advantage of community agencies that offer mental health services—often at no cost—and can make greater use of therapeutic interns from local graduate school programs. Collaborations among the Marin County Office of Education, school districts, and the Department of Health and Human Services have channeled some state funding to districts with fewer resources, and offer a vision for improving mental health services in Marin schools. The grant proposal discussed above demonstrates agreement among these agencies about several priority areas. The recently adopted Marin County Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan presents one route to moving forward. Many of the objectives, partnerships, and activities of Strategy 6 of that plan, “Foster Safe and Healthy Environments on All School Campuses,” go beyond suicide prevention to broader goals of ensuring that all campuses have adequate mental health services and supportive resources. Taken together, the grant proposal and the Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan provide a roadmap for improving mental health services in Marin schools.