Protecting our school communities with Mental Health Supports

Bargaining for The Common Good 

Bargaining has evolved in recent years to have an even stronger community and student focus. As a result, NEA affiliates and employers can prioritize many of the mental health issues affecting both students and educators.  

Bargaining for the Common Good is an innovative approach to bargaining through which NEA affiliates use contract or advocacy campaigns to organize local stakeholders around demands that benefits not just educators, but also students and their families. Some sample provisions relating to social and emotional supports include: 

• Establishing and providing trauma training to help identify trauma in students 

• Create or expand crisis teams in every school building to monitor and assist with social/emotional health 

• Increase staffing of counselors and nurses 

• Ensure mental health professionals are able to perform their primary job functions instead of working on administrative duties 

• Partner with local medical and mental health professionals to provide full range of services to students and employees 

• Track long-term effects of the pandemic on students including changes in grades, graduation rates, and absenteeism 

• Prioritize stress counseling 

American Rescue Plan Funding 

Since the pandemic began last year, the federal government has enacted rescue legislation providing unprecedented levels of support for education. NEA believes that these funds should be used to advance equity, close opportunity gaps for vulnerable students, support the educator workforce, and protect the health and safety of educators, students, and their families. 

The American Rescue Plan includes nearly $170 billion in dedicated public education funding. That money can be used to reduce class sizes and modify spaces to comply with social distancing; modernize HVAC systems; hire more school custodians, nurses and counselors; and facilitate social distancing on transportation services with additional buses and drivers. The funding can also be used to add supports to address student trauma and learning loss. 

Whether bargaining is permitted in your state or not, it is vital that state and local education associations raise educator voices and assert their professional authority to ensure that all stakeholders, including educators, parents, and community, provide input and be a part of the decision-making processes. NEA created a full guide on strategies for locals to fully utilize the ARP funds effectively. 

Bipartisan Safer Communities Act 

The BSCA is a historic investment of over $1 billion additional funding for mental health and other school-based services. As the first major federal gun safety legislation in decades, the law expands gun safety measures like increased background checks, and targets interstate gun trafficking. The law also addresses violence more broadly by expanding school-based mental health services, reducing obstacles to schools’ billing for services under Medicaid, and creating a technical assistance center to facilitate compliance and operations.

The BSCA treats schools as a key point for observation and intervention. States can now extend Medicaid’s reach beyond the IEP and tap into Medicaid funding to increase access and resources for comprehensive school-based health services. Despite the considerable increase in funding and additional mental health services for students that this expansion provides, at the time of publication, only 18 states have expanded Medicaid’s reach beyond the IEP for school-based health services. States must act in order to maximize this historic opportunity!

NEA has created a resource that details how affiliates can work with state decision makers to use the BSCA to increase mental health and other services for students, and reduce gun violence in schools and communities. This resource provides recommended actions and includes actions of states successfully moving forward.