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10 Sacramento-area schools to implement mental health counseling services this fall

Sacramento Bee
Jun 25, 2020

Jun. 24--New mental health clinicians will soon be available at 10 Sacramento-area public schools come fall, according to a Wednesday announcement by the Sacramento County Office of Education.

In collaboration with the county's Office of Public Health and local school districts, the County Office of Education rolled out the School Based Mental Health and Wellness Partnership, which aims to eventually assign a health clinician to every school in the county.

The first 10 schools are a combination of elementary, middle and high schools throughout the Sacramento City Unified, Twin Rivers Unified, Elk Grove Unified, Folsom-Cordova Unified, River Delta Unified, and Robla school districts.

The program will assign a social worker designated as a mental health clinician to each of the selected schools. The clinicians will then work to integrate themselves into the school communities to offer both "trauma-informed" and preemptive mental health care.

"As students (return) to school, we know very well that students will have suffered from having been isolated from their friends, not having been in contact with their friends (and) sport," said David Gordon, Sacramento County's superintendent of education. "They will need a lot of support when they come back."

County and district officials said the timing of the program rollout is opportune to address the effects of disruption of traditional schooling by the coronavirus pandemic, and the effects mental health conditions have on academic underperformance and other facets of student life at area schools.

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Officials from participating districts selected schools within their boundaries based on rates of suspension, chronic absenteeism and numbers of socioeconomically-disadvantaged students within schools.

In SCUSD, Hiram Johnson High School in Tahoe Park and Ethel Baker Elementary School in Fruitridge Manor will be the first two schools to implement the program.

Dr. Peter Beilenson, director of the Sacramento County Department of Health Services, said access to mental health counseling has demonstrated the potential to reduce rates of suspension and chronic absenteeism that many Sacramento area schools struggle with by beginning the search for signs of mental health disorders at an early age.

"If you go to a high school, (some students) have had trauma since they were 2 ... to 4 years of age," he said. "So it's really helpful to be able to talk to them at a younger age."

The county plans to fund the counselors through Medi-Cal reimbursements. Schools with high percentage of Medi-Cal-eligible students will receive enough funding to support the salaries of the mental health professionals, according to Gordon.

The following schools will be the first to receive a mental health clinician, beginning in the fall of 2020.

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Cordova High School: 1855 students (Folsom-Cordova Unified)

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Hiram Johnson High School: 1661 students (Sacramento City)

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Mills Middle School: 769 students (Folsom-Cordova)

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James Rutter Middle School: 927 students (Elk Grove)

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Ethel Baker Elementary School: 597 students (Sacramento City)

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Isleton Elementary School: 170 students (River Delta)

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Noralto Elementary School: 478 students (Twin Rivers)

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Samuel Kennedy Elementary School: 985 students (Elk Grove)

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Taylor Street Elementary School: 209 students (Robla)

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Woodbridge Elementary School: 581 students (Twin Rivers)

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(c)2020 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)

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