For Immediate Release From USDE!
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is releasing Notices Inviting Applications for two grant programs to increase access to mental health services for students and young people, totaling $280 million, that were funded through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) and the Fiscal Year 2022 Omnibus Appropriations. The BSCA provided historic funding to help meet President Biden’s goal of doubling the number of school-based mental health professionals and tackling the nation’s mental health crisis. This is the first of $1 billion in Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funds over the next five years that the Department of Education will award for this purpose.
"For too long, schools have lacked the resources to hire enough school-based mental health providers, when at the same time, educators are often first to notice when a student is slipping academically or struggling because of mental health challenges," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. "We know children and youth can’t do their best learning when they’re experiencing depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges whether they stem from community violence, social isolation from the pandemic, loss of loved ones, bullying, harassment, or something else. This funding from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act will help schools raise the bar for student mental health by recruiting, preparing, hiring, and training highly qualified school-based mental health providers, including in underserved communities and for students such as multilingual learners and those from low-income backgrounds and in rural communities, where access to such services can be limited.”
The first grant program, School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMH), provides funding to schools to increase the number of credentialed school-based mental health professionals. The second program, the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration (MHSP) grants, support districts in hiring additional school-based mental health service providers in high-need districts by boosting the mental health profession pipeline. This includes investing in innovative partnerships between school districts and institutions of higher education to prepare qualified school-based mental health services providers for employment in schools. These programs will increase the number of mental health service providers from diverse backgrounds or from the communities they serve, including ensuring access to services for children and youth who are English learners.
This announcement is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to addressing the nation’s mental health crisis by providing more resources and supports to help schools address students’ mental health needs. As part of that effort, in January, Secretary Cardona laid out the department’s goals and vision for helping students recover from the pandemic, including by increasing access to social, emotional, and mental health supports for all students. Just recently, the Department announced the Stronger Connections Grant program
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/mid... which are awards totaling nearly $1 billion to 56 states and territories through BSCA to help schools in high-need districts provide students with safe and supportive learning opportunities and environments that are critical for their success. At the beginning of the school year, the Department sent a letter
https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/seclet... with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra to governors across the country to highlight federal resources available to states and schools to invest in mental health services for students. The Department also awarded $122 billion in ARP Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to help schools reopen and recover, and experts indicate more than $2 billion has been directed to hire more school psychologists, counselors, and other mental health professionals in K-12 schools. With the help of these funds, as of July, compared with the pre-pandemic period, the number of school social workers is up 54% and the number of school counselors is up 22%.
Coinciding with this announcement from the Department of Education, today the Department of Health and Human Services is announcing awards of nearly $27 million to improve and expand mental health care for children. This funding will offer timely mental health support to children and adolescents by training pediatricians and other children’s health care providers in treating mental health conditions and by providing tele-consultation to bring mental health expert support directly to pediatric primary care providers.
School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program
The SBMH grant program provides competitive grants to State educational agencies (SEAs), Local educational agencies (LEAs), and consortia of LEAs to increase the number of credentialed school-based mental health service providers delivering school-based mental health services to students in LEAs with demonstrated need. The grant provides $144 million each year for 5 years, with an average award size of $1,750,000, ranging from $500,000 to $3,000,000 per year. The Department anticipates making up to 150 awards. Two technical assistance webinars for prospective applicants will be provided: one on October 11th, 2022, and one on October 19th, 2022, prior to the application deadline. Webinar information will be available here:
https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-form... Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program
The MHSP Demonstration grant program provides competitive grants to support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers for employment in schools and LEAs. The grant program aims to address a challenge facing districts and schools across the country: an insufficient supply of school-based mental health professionals to meet the needs of students. The partnerships must include (1) one or more high-need LEA or an SEA on behalf of one or more high-need LEA; and (2) one or more eligible institutions of higher education (IHE). These grants make available $143 million a year for 5 years, with an average award size of $800,000, ranging from $400,000 to $1,200,000 per year. The Department anticipates making up to 250 awards. Two technical assistance webinars for prospective applicants will be provided: one on October 12th, 2022, and one on October 18th, 2022, prior to the application deadline. Webinar information will be available here:
https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-form... ********
U.S. Department of Education (recently) Awards Over $60 Million to Strengthen the Teacher Pipeline, Increase Educator Leadership, and Support Quality Teaching and Learning to Further Address Teacher Shortage
the U.S. Department of Education (Department) is announcing new awards to further address the teacher shortage and help ensure long-term investments in teacher pipeline and development programs across the country. New investments under the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program, include 22 new three-year grants totaling more than $60 million, bringing the Biden-Harris Administration’s additional support for teachers through Fiscal Year 2022 grant competitions to more than $285 million.
“We are treating our efforts to recruit, prepare, and retain a talented and diverse educator workforce with the same level of urgency we brought to reopening our schools during the height of the pandemic,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Now more than ever, we are supporting teacher preparation and development programs that provide educators with meaningful, relevant, and evidence-based strategies for promoting student success and social and emotional well-being. Today’s investment of over $60 million will support high-quality programs across the country that are truly raising the bar for professional development and embracing evidence-based and innovative and promising approaches, like Grow-Your-Own programs, to strengthen the teacher pipeline today, and in the years ahead.”
The SEED program supports evidence-based practices that prioritizes educators’ growth across the continuum of their careers. In this year’s SEED competition, the Department directed funding to projects designed to support educator workforce through high-quality, comprehensive teacher preparation programs, including those with a strong track record of recruiting and placing underrepresented teacher candidates, and that include one year of high-quality clinical experiences. The Department also prioritized projects designed to help teachers create inclusive and equitable learning designed to meet students’ social, emotional, and academic needs.
The National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) latest survey results on public school experiences with COVID-19 show that, as of August 2022, 53 percent of all public schools reported feeling understaffed entering the 2022-23 school year, and 69 percent reported too few candidates as the biggest challenge to hiring teachers. By investing in programs like SEED and focusing on the most pressing needs, the Biden-Harris Administration is helping to strengthen the teacher pipeline and provide long-term investments in the teaching profession.
Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant awardees include
NATIONAL
The National Center for Teacher Residencies’ (NCTR) Centering Equity, Building & Scaling Teacher Residencies project aims to increase the number of effective teacher residents from diverse backgrounds in underserved schools, districts, and subjects by boosting teacher residency programs across Connecticut, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. NCTR will provide scaffolded technical assistance and support to develop and scale 14 teacher residency programs, 10 of which are located at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
LOUISIANA:
The New Orleans SEED program aims to address New Orleans’ persistent teacher shortage problem by focusing on boosting pathways into the profession through the expansion of innovative and promising Grow-Your-Own pathways. Funding will help project partners build a robust, sustainable pipeline of local aspiring teachers to pursue the profession and become the next generation of effective educators in New Orleans’ underserved schools. By 2025, the project hopes to recruit, prepare, and place 550 teachers in underserved schools and have more than 200 high school students in the city’s teacher pipeline.
MISSOURI:
The Community Training and Assistance Center, Inc., a national non-profit organization, is using SEED support for Project Extended Impact (IMPACT) in partnership with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. IMPACT aims to increase Missouri’s supply of highly effective principals to improve teaching and learning, engaging 2,100 principals from across the state. SEED funding will help boost the capacity of Missouri principals to deepen their impact in three key areas: social and emotional learning; accelerated academic learning; and teacher recruitment, development, and retention.
A full list of grantees can be found below:
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-...
Posted By: agnes levine
Wednesday, October 5th 2022 at 2:49PM
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