ESD 112 Superintendent’s Report

Responding to the Student Mental Health Crisis

The dire need for school-based mental health support first came into focus as schools and communities emerged from the COVID pandemic. Student behavior issues were rising, and studies showed that one in five youths attending schools had a diagnosable mental health disorder, yet close to 70 percent of those youths were not receiving services, like counseling, that would help them to recover. The need was clear: schools and students required access to mental health services and providers, with as few barriers as possible. The problem? Mental health therapists were in short supply across the region and nation.

School-Based Mental Health Support

I’m proud to say that ESD 112 didn’t flinch and quickly, significantly expanded our existing mental and behavioral health program. Utilizing our recently earned Behavioral Health Agency license from the Department of Health, ESD 112 leveraged COVID emergency relief funding available through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). When Klickitat County lost its youth crisis response provider, responsible for supporting youth with urgent mental health needs, ESD 112 stepped up to build a school-based mental health crisis support program and hired a mobile mental health therapist to support all of the small schools across Klickitat County. In this role, the therapist travels from school to school each week providing mental health therapy to students referred by the staff. ESD 112 also partnered with school districts in Klickitat County to offer training on building youth crisis response teams, with the goal of increasing local skills and abilities to intervene and support youth in crisis.

Our work didn’t end there. Utilizing a combination of grant and state funding, ESD 112 expanded the mental health work accomplished in Klickitat County and simultaneously responded to the Legislature’s House Bill 1216, designed to support a statewide K-12 safety network. In an effort to proactively prevent school violence and respond to behavioral health concerns using trusted approaches, Regional School Safety Centers were established at regional ESDs, in partnership with OSPI.

Establishing Behavioral Health & Regional School Safety Centers

ESD 112 has had a robust safety planning and threat assessment program in place for years, and additional, dedicated support allowed for considerable growth of this program. Utilizing a best practices approach to offering mental and behavioral health services, student threat assessment, school safety coordination, and wellness and treatment services, the ESD 112 Behavioral Health & Regional School Safety Center (BH & RSSC) was born.

ESD 112 utilized its unique connections across school, community, state, and local systems to provide a one-stop-shop for school needs including student mental health therapy, suicide prevention training for school staff, emergency operations planning, safety audits, and level 1 and 2 threat assessment identification and supervision.

Behavioral health, emergency planning, and assessment of potential threats have previously been siloed services, but the BH & RSSC brings these elements together in partnership with local community resources to provide wrap-around assistance for students, school staff, and entire school districts.

We’ve spent the past 12 months building out each of the BH & RSSC’s programs: Comprehensive School Safety, Behavioral Health Navigation, Threat Assessment Coordination, and Wellness and Treatment.

There are now 23 total team members, seven of whom were hired this year. BH & RSSC staff positions include mental health therapists, behavioral health clinical supervisors, substance use disorder specialists, a safety coordinator, threat assessment coordinator, and behavioral health navigator.

Staff Positions by the Numbers

• 17 mental health therapists, including a bilingual therapist, most of which are embedded in schools in areas of greatest need
• 3 behavioral health clinical supervisors
• 3 substance use disorder specialists, two of whom are also mental health therapists

Expanding Access

BH & RSSC’s multi-disciplined team has opened access to behavioral health support where resources were particularly scarce. Prior to this past year’s work, it was nearly impossible for students in more rural areas of the Columbia River Gorge to access a mental health provider. Now all school districts in Klickitat County have a designated mobile or embedded mental health therapist. This model lays the foundation for similar implementation throughout ESD 112’s six-county region.

Additionally, BH & RSSC staff produced a suicide prevention protocol to support schools in identifying and responding to student suicide, which is also a growing concern.

Staff focusing on school safety have been hard at work, conducting emergency operations planning training for school leaders, and site assessments to ensure the safety of schools across the region. Simultaneously, RSSC team members continued to support school districts in their work to identify situations that may pose a threat of harm to others and provide options for intervention through threat assessment.

A New Facility

A new Behavioral Health and Regional School Safety Center facility on the ESD 112 Vancouver main campus will open its doors this year. The new facility will allow the important work of the center and its programs to further grow and develop, with the goal of equitably providing students and programs the customized support they need to thrive.

I am exceptionally proud of the work we have done in partnership with school districts and excited to see how ESD 112 can continue to create groundbreaking solutions for schools when they need us the most.

Sincerely,

Tim Merlino
Superintendent, ESD 112