Creating a Comprehensive Data-Based Coordinated System of Care for School Districts to Promote Youth Academic Success and Social Emotional Development

Introduction:  In 2012, voters in Boone County, Missouri passed a county-wide sales tax to fund mental health services for children. In an effort to manage the inundation of local mental health service providers into their buildings hoping to capitalize on the funding windfall, superintendents from all school districts in consultation with researchers from the University of Missouri formed the Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition (the Coalition). The Coalition ultimately received funding from the sales tax initiative and is now the centerpiece of a coordinated school mental health system of care. The presentation will describe the formation and infrastructure of this unique partnership and the systemic efforts to screen 25,000 students in county schools, including the social emotional learning climate of all schools, three times per year. The dashboard data system is used to guide decision making for providing any needed universal, selective, or indicated prevention supports needed in each building as well as to inform behavior support team planning for individual students.

Methods: Student and teacher checklists of individual student risk and protective factors serve as the primary measurement tools. Additionally, the activities of regional coordinators who support implementation and training practices are tracked throughout the year. Finally, fidelity tools for monitoring the process and procedures of behavior support teams will be described.

Results: The dashboard system for summarizing each data element will be presented as well as how each tool is used to guide decision making regarding school wide training and interventions as well as more selective or indicated behavior support planning for students.

Conclusions: The discussion will focus on the lessons learned from the early stage development of this community wide coalition to support youth mental health and how county wide expertise from a range of specialties (including programming, public relations, journalism, public health) has been brought to bear to create the coordinated care system.