Alabama education leaders celebrate success, seek expansion of mental health services
Montgomery AdvertiserJan 27, 2021
Despite the challenges thrown at the
In a press conference Wednesday, state superintendent
Since the Legislature approved funding the inaugural mental health program in 2019 with about
"We are surrogate parents away from the home," assistant state superintendent
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Their job, Roller explained, is similar to an air traffic controller. The mental health service coordinators receive the information regarding the myriad of issues students, staff and families are experiencing and they help to connect each with the best resource available.
"So as the situations come in, we sort it, we filter it and we send it along to the right person," Roller said of the coordinators.
Many districts, like
More: MPS wants to expand school based mental health program district wide
Across the state, there are about 75 agencies partnering with school systems in a similar manner. The coordinators job is to work with those agencies, as well as to expand partnerships.
Now, Mackey is requesting state legislators agree to further fund the program to ensure all 142 school systems have their own coordinator, and each coordinator is able to access more tools and services.
During his address to members of the state's legislative budget committees Tuesday, Mackey requested an about
Roller stressed the importance of the additional funding given the increase of mental health issues amid the pandemic.
"Mental health issues have always been present but in the past," he said. "But now, especially during COVID, it has become a universal issue because students that weren't in a vulnerable population suddenly became vulnerable. So now, we are having to support all students with all issues and we need to be able to expand to build capacity."
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