Students who are academically impaired due to mental and behavioral health needs require interventions that span the school and community settings. Changes in community-based service delivery are underway due to recent legislation, and these services can impact the role of school psychologists. This article provides some history of these changes and highlights the need of our members to attend the upcoming Fall conference to prepare their school systems to address these needs.

Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI)
The Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative is an undertaking by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and MassHealth to implement the Order in a lawsuit known as Rosie D. et. al. vs. Patrick. In 2006, a federal court found that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had not provided the mandated “early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment services” or the “reasonable promptness provision” for children with emotional disturbance. This finding indicated that there were insufficient coordinated, community-based services behavioral health services for children with emotional disturbance serviced by MassHealth. To address the inadequacy of community-based services, the 2007 court order outlined services new community-based mental health services that are being overseen by the CBHI Office. The mission of the CBHI is to strengthen, expand and integrate Massachusetts services into a comprehensive system of community-based, culturally competent behavioral health and complementary services for all children with serious emotional disturbance and other emotional and behavioral health needs, along with their families.

The new services to meet this court order are being rolled out between July and December, 2009 and include Intensive Care Coordination (ICC) using the Wraparound model as well as mobile crisis intervention, family partners, in-home behavioral services, therapeutic mentors, in-home therapy services, and crisis stabilization services. But what is the role of school psychologists in coordinating care and meeting the mental health needs of students? The court finding indicated that students with emotional disturbance as defined by IDEIA are eligible for these community-based services.

Effective interventions for students with complex mental health needs must be proactive, uniquely designed with the youth/family, and carefully coordinated across home, school, and community. How do school-based clinicians facilitate the redesigning of environments and positioning of natural supports (e.g. teachers, family members, etc) to ensure student success in natural settings? The Fall conference presentation, led by Dr. Lucille Eber of the Illinois State Department of Education, will describe the potential role of school psychologists in implementing System of Care-based supports for students with complex emotional/behavioral needs.. The step-by-step wraparound process for developing unique, community-based teams and plans for the 1-3% of students with the most complex needs will be presented; examples of the wraparound process as applied in communities and schools will be included. The Worcester Public Schools has been using this model as part of their Positive Behavior Support programs and they will share examples of how they have implemented these coordinated support services in Massachusetts schools.