$10 million grant establishes a new national center to train more school based mental health professionals

With an already dedicated and thriving School Mental Health Collaborative (SMHC) center at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Education, more support from the federal government will expand its reach across the United States in the creation of a newly developed training center called METRICS. With the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) as the prime recipient, USF along with the University of Iowa, and the University of California, Santa Barbara have been awarded a four-year, $10.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to launch and operate this national center to expand the nation’s school-based mental health workforce of school psychologists, social workers, school counselors, and other practitioners.

The SMHC at USF is run by co-executive directors, Nate von der Embse, PhD, Evan Dart, PhD, Shannon Suldo, PhD, and director, David Wheeler, PhD. The SMHC was first established in 2019 by these researchers and colleagues at UW-Madison. The goal of the collaborative is to partner with research centers across the U.S. with a shared mission and vision that will improve access to school mental health services. The new METRICS center is designed to enhance K-12 students' access to essential mental health services in schools by tackling the nationwide shortage of school-based mental health professionals.

“The national technical assistance center – METRICS – is a logical extension of the SMHC’s purpose and mission of facilitating access to high quality, evidence-based school mental health services through the preparation and training of competent and culturally responsive school-based mental health service providers and expands the Center’s footprint and impact through participation in a national network,” said Wheeler.

von der Embse, professor of school psychology, is the principal investigator for METRICS at USF. “We talk about the 20/20 phenomenon – 20 percent of kids across the United States will have a mental health need. But of those kids, only 20 percent will receive time and service to help them through the crisis,” said von der Embse. “Without an increase in mental health professionals, kids across the nation will continue to struggle. So, this is a critical and historic investment that gives us the opportunity to get this right so the government continues to fund mental health professionals.”

The historic investment von der Embse refers to is made possible by the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed into law by the current presidential administration to invest over $1 billion in school-based mental health programs in the next five years. According to a DOE news release announcing this specific grant, federal officials said, “METRICS will meaningfully change lives, by building a mental health infrastructure in schools and communities across the country.”

This comes at a time when 70 percent of public schools report a rise in students seeking mental health services, and 29 percent of schools note an increase in staff requesting mental health support.

Through over 250 grants awarded to training programs, school districts, and state education agencies, the DOE is supporting the delivery of school-based mental health services at a time that some are describing as a youth mental health crisis. Dart, associate professor of school psychology at USF, said, “Many recipients of these grants are first-time grantees and need support to accomplish the activities and initiatives they described in their proposals as well as assistance managing their grant. METRICS primarily exists to support these grantees throughout the lifetime of their 5-year projects to ensure that program objectives are met in a timely and effective manner.” These grants aim to boost the number and diversity of skilled mental health service providers, particularly in high-need districts facing significant staff shortages.

Notably, three of the grantees being supported by METRICS are close to home. Researchers from the USF College of Education and the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences received funding, as well as Tampa’s Hillsborough County Public Schools, the 7th largest school district in the nation.

According to the the Washington Post, the U.S. currently has a shortage of 100,000 school mental health staff. Suldo, professor and director of clinical training of school psychology said, “Schools have so few providers, oftentimes they are reacting in crisis response mode. Our goal is to have more providers that are trained in best practices in the complete range of services from prevention to promotion to early intervention. The center’s role is to provide the full continuum of services from helping universities train the professionals, to helping school districts recruit, hire, and retain these providers.” 

Because of the work already accomplished by the SMHC, USF and UW-Madison, along with its two partner institutions, were primed to provide the support that the DOE needed. METRICS is led by a national team of school-based mental health experts and supported by coaches and other project staff. Dart said, “The support and resources we provide to grantees is relevant to all school-based mental health professional training programs and school districts and we hope to achieve a broader vision of providing similar services nationwide beyond the lifetime of these specific grant projects.”

One requirement from the Department of Education is good outcome data and high-quality information that will allow federal officials to evaluate the return on their investment. “USF is the data foundation,” said von der Embse. While there is a great deal of cross collaboration across the four participating universities, von der Embse’s site role focuses on data analytics and quality improvement. “We are responsible for helping grantees meet their annual targets and develop usable and actionable data so that they can continue to be funded and, most importantly, recruit high quality professionals.”

This initial grant allows METRICS to build up its services and distribution to the communities surrounding its four participating higher education institutions. To date, METRICS has produced a robust and growing website with resources for professionals, nationwide webinars, and individual coaching with grantees across the U.S. to help them recruit school mental health providers. Long-term, and with additional government funding, this collaborative will allow USF and its partners to expand mental health services to all schools across the country; they will reach, recruit, and train enough professionals to alleviate one of the biggest challenges facing children and their futures.

Looking forward, von der Embse said, “We’re excited about the ability to produce and host free evidence-based interventions and assessments that schools can download and use, which we think is going to be a game changer. Schools across the country are going to have access to these high-quality resources that they typically don’t have. We look forward to advancing access to mental health supports for kids across the country." 

Learn more about METRICS and the School Mental Health Collaborative.