Stepping into the 25-26 school year, Lamoille County Mental Health Services’ (LCMHS) School Based Mental Health Services, like many of the Vermont Care Partners network agencies, partners with local school districts to address the changing needs of school communities. While continuing to offer Success Beyond Six services that are funded through local dollars, with a Medicaid match that assists in making services more affordable to schools and districts, LCMHS’ School Based Clinician and Redwood Behavior Interventionist (BI) programs have expanded to address current student needs.
The youth mental health crisis, which began prior to and then was expounded upon by the pandemic, continues to impact our children and adolescents. Student challenges with attending, engaging, and maintaining a full school day due to social, emotional, behavioral, and/or developmental needs, require creative collaboration with community partners. Working within the Multi-Tier System of Support framework promoted by the Vermont Agency of Education, LCMHS School Based Directors, Lamoille Valley Directors of Student Support Services, School Administration, and Special Education Teams, continue to brainstorm options to meet student needs across the 3 Tiers.
This systems-level collaboration is grounded in nationally recognized frameworks that emphasize shared responsibility for social and emotional development. The chart below comes from the CASEL framework illustrating the importance of coordinated community support for social and emotional learning from the classroom to district and state levels. School Based Mental Health works across all tiers to help promote intentional social emotional development.
For more information visit: www.casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/.
Tier 1 – Universal Supports
School Based Clinicians are an important part of their school community and play a vital role in supporting their school climate and student sense of belonging. They attend Student Support Team meetings, assist in connecting families to additional resources, and provide clinical consultation and training on an as needed basis, with school districts contracting for professional development specific to youth mental health needs and education in the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency framework.
Tier 2 – Targeted Supports
Tier 2 Support contracts began last year and have expanded to this school year. This model begins with school identified students who need specific times of support during the school day. This model allows for flexibility in serving Medicaid and non-Medicaid students. Currently, the Redwood Behavior Interventionist Program is serving 28 students with only 13 students that have 1:1 Behavior Interventions.
School Based Clinicians provide targeted short-term support to students who are navigating difficult times and run 6–8-week groups that focus on specific areas of need per their school population. These groups range from managing anxiety, identifying and developing healthy relationships, navigating life transitions, building conflict resolution skills, to art and movement-based self-esteem pro-social groups. Throughout the school year, more than 200 additional students engage in small groups or short-term consultation work. Consultation work focuses on developing skills to manage current stressors and/or working with school and family teams to create developmentally appropriate language and plans to increase school engagement and communication.
Tier 3 – Individualized Supports
The Redwood Behavior Interventionist (BI) Program provides 1 adult per child (1:1) support, 1:2, and if needed, 2:1 contracted support. These supports wrap a school and family with direct staff support at school, service coordination for home-school communication and transportation, and Behavior Consultants to create and track evidence-based plans. Goals focus on academic engagement and achievement, and/or specific life skills for developmental disabilities.
Smaller mini contracts for Functional Behavior Assessments are offered on an individual basis to support school teams in creating behavior plans to increase student engagement and success.
The Functional Skills Program is a new program created this year to address multiple student needs while focusing on their individual goals. The Redwood BI program partnered with Orleans South Supervisory Union and Lamoille South Supervisory Union (LSSU) to provide two days a week of support in each district. The school district identifies the students and offers the service to the family and goals are created as a treatment team. These services can happen in the community, in the LCMHS school wing, or at the school. Students receive a specific number of hours of one-on-one support without the need or cost of a full-time Behavior Interventionist. This program also supports transitional age youth (ages 15-26) with life skills that include community volunteer opportunities and connection to employment resources.
Creating greater opportunities for early intervention has been identified as a top priority within Lamoille Valley. LCMHS is stepping in to partner with LSSU public preschools and early education classrooms to support programing for multiple students carrying diagnoses of Developmental Delays and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Included in this contract is parent and teacher training, which supports social, emotional, and communication skill development for kindergarten learning readiness.
LCMHS currently has 12 School Based Clinicians serving over 150 individual students in 12 schools across Lamoille North, Lamoille South, and Orleans South Supervisory Unions.
School Based Clinicians are licensed counselors, counselors working toward licensure under supervision and/or social workers who provide individual therapy to students that are struggling across home and school environments. Student treatment goals, developed by the School Based Clinician and student, address developmentally appropriate social emotional behavioral skills, so that students may develop a positive sense of self in school and life. With School Based Clinicians being embedded in the school building, therapy becomes a space to build skills and then generalize across settings. Parent/caregiver, school, and treatment team support is also provided. During times of crisis, School Based Clinicians connect families with LCMHS’ Mental Health Crisis Team and can support the Agency of Education Behavioral Threat Assessment process by being on the school Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Team.
Being flexible and creative while upholding the requirements of Success Beyond Six funding has built close partnerships between LCMHS and Lamoille Valley school partners. As LCMHS continues to navigate the uncertain funding landscape and the fast-paced world, LCMHS is dedicated to supporting the ever-changing needs of our students and community. When we work together, we can make a lasting impact on student wellness.
Written by Katina Idol, LCMHC, ARC Trainer, School Based Mental Health Services Director and Ayla Landry, MBA, CAGS in ABA, Redwood Behavior Intervention Program Director.
More about LCMHS
Serving Lamoille Valley. Where people and possibilities come together.
LCMHS is a collaborative community mental health designated agency providing comprehensive therapeutic-based mental health, developmental, behavioral, and family support services to the Lamoille Valley. Nearly all our work happens in the communities where our consumers live – in their homes, in their schools, in their childcare programs, in their jobs.
This article is part of a series, collaboratively produced by members of Vermont Care Partners, a statewide network of sixteen non-profit, community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disability supports.
