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 sale tax initiative and is now the centerpiece of a coordinated school mental health system of care. This partnership has also led to funding from the Institute of Education Sciences as a partnership project. 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. A 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 data on individual student risk and protective factors, numbers of students served, fidelity to the processes and procedures of the Coalition model as well as to evidence-based interventions, and school records of discipline referrals and attendance will serve as the primary measures.

Results: The dashboard system for summarizing each data element will be presented as well as the tools are used to guide decision making regarding school wide training and interventions as well as for determining selective or indicated interventions for students. The impact of the Coalition model on student outcomes will be evaluated with a focus on fidelity to the model as a moderating variable.

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 coordinate care system. Recommendations for the formation of similar successful research-practice-policy partnerships related to prevention programming will be provided.