LITCHFIELD, Conn. — Countless surveys have shed light on the pandemic's impact on student mental health. Even with schools back to normal operations, education leaders say that struggle is still there.
To meet the need, new grant funding has been announced for schools in northwestern Connecticut.
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $8.7 million to boost school-based mental health services in 30 northwestern Connecticut K-12 schools over the next five years.
“This is a need that we’ve been talking to school superintendents and school district administration about for years and years before the pandemic,” said EdAdvance Executive Director Jeffrey Kitching.
The federal grant was awarded to EdAdvance, a regional education service center that helps schools with everything from transportation to food service.
The center is currently looking to hire 15 mental health professionals who will provide service in 30 schools. A bulk of the new grant will go toward competitive salaries, benefits, and other incentives.
“It really will be along a continuum, everything from awareness within the community and within the staff, training for teachers to help identify students who may be struggling with different types of issues, working directly with groups of students,” said Kitching.
The focus of this initiative is on rural schools, places where students often have a harder time getting access to mental health support.
“They have not had the funds in their budgets to provide these services, so for some schools, they’ve never had a social worker, they’ve depended either on the town social worker or some community service organization that’s in their area,” said Esther Bobowick, EdAdvance consultant.
Funding from the grant will also help implement a free social-emotional learning program for sixth-grade students, as well as provide no-cost training for school personnel in areas like managing trauma and assessing students for vaping use.
Schools benefitting from the funding include:
Regional District #1: Housatonic
Valley Regional HS and elementary schools in Cornwall, Falls Village, Kent, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon
Regional District #7: Northwestern
Regional MS & HS, and elementary schools in Barkhamsted, Norfolk, Colebrook
Regional District #12: Shepaug
Valley MS & HS and elementary schools in Roxbury, Bridgewater, Washington
Regional District #14: Nonnewaug
HS, Woodbury MS and elementary schools in Bethlehem and Woodbury
Litchfield/Regional District #6
(Future Region 20): Wamogo &
Litchfield MS/HS, elementary schools in Goshen, Morris, Warren and Litchfield
Winchester: Hinsdale and Pearson schools and the Explorations Charter School.
Angelo Bavaro is an anchor and reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at abavaro@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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