Author & Moderator: Emily Paisner, Senior Director of Marketing, Daybreak Health

Panelists: 

• Dr. Kimberly Steinke, Chief Exceptional Children and Student Services Officer at Guilford County Schools, North Carolina
• Dr. Adrain Johnson, Superintendent at Hearne Independent School District, Texas
• Kristin Schmidt, Director of Social Emotional Learning at Crystal Lake Elementary in District 47 in Illinois
• Cicely Bega, Daybreak’s grant expert and writer

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As ESSER funding comes to an end, districts across the country face significant challenges in securing funding for school-based mental health programs. Many districts used this funding to hire additional school-based staff while others leveraged it to establish or enhance their multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). Oftentimes, districts allocate funding for these essential mental health programs in their budgets, but many have had to get creative in how they access and allocate their resources moving forward due to budget constraints across the board.

Our district panelists represented varied perspectives coming from different states and ranging in student size, location, and demographics. But, as Dr. Adrian Johnson, Superintendent at Hearne Independent School District, shared, “I can tell you size really doesn't matter when it comes to the challenges we face with kids.”

If your district wants to learn more about leveraging grants and other funding opportunities to sustain essential mental health services in a post-ESSER world, here are the 5 key takeaways from the discussion:

1. Have Dedicated Grant-Writing Resources

Dr. Kimberly Steinke, Chief Exceptional Children and Student Services Officer at Guilford County Schools in North Carolina, shared that she is in a unique position coming from a large school district where they have a role specifically dedicated for grant writing. Their Senior Director of Public Affairs and Philanthropy is responsible for monitoring the federal register and facilitating the district’s grant applications and philanthropy efforts. 

Coming from a smaller district, Kristin Schmidt, Director of Social Emotional Learning at Crystal Lake Elementary at District 47 in Illinois, said that having a grant writing specialist in-house is rare. But, she added that it’s essential to invest in grant writing and professional development and embed grant writing skills into certain positions. She said even though it’s an additional job responsibility and skill set, it is “worth its weight in gold” if your district is able to secure funding. “If we're getting grants, it's because somebody is passionate about something.”

Kristin also shared that she partnered with their PBIS regional support network who had someone who was proficient in grant writing who understood all of the nuances, specific language, and what they are looking for in the grant application. She shared, “I can unequivocally say that I would not have been able to secure that grant on my own.”

2. Continually Track, Apply, and Re-Apply for Grants

Our panelists agreed that districts can be reluctant to apply for grants because they are often short term. “Making the decision to apply in the first place can be a challenge if you know you're only gonna have it for three years,” Dr. Steinke shared. “But that doesn’t change the need for programs right now. I've always been of the philosophy that you just continually apply for grants as much as possible. Even if you apply for something and you don't get it the first time, turn around the next cycle, it opens up, apply for it again.” 

Dr. Steinke also advised to be strategic about the grants you are applying for because “there can be a lot of overlap.” Understand the niche and need for what you are applying for so you can be very specific. And, make sure you have the personnel needed to manage the grant, budget, and timing.

Cicely Bega is Daybreak’s in-house grants expert. She shared, “We truly understand the funding challenges that districts face as well as the complexity of healthcare finance and searching for alternative funding sources such as grants.” Cicely regularly updates Daybreak’s grant tracker to highlight national as well as state-based opportunities because “we know that districts are busy being educators and not all districts have a large grant team to source grants.”

“A lot of the systems that offer grants, whether it's federal or private or endowment funds, they'll give you feedback on your applications about what stopped you from getting something,” Dr. Steinke shared. “Take that information at hand and improve your grant application the next time around.”

3. Create Strong Community Partnerships‍

Dr. Johnson knew that when the pandemic was over, funding was going to get tight. That’s why he focused on building partnerships to keep the district’s MTSS in place ahead of time. To future proof Hearne’s mental health services, Dr. Johnson has collaborated with school boards, universities, and even neighboring districts to create a MTSS that ranges from mobile health units to academic programs and counseling. He said, “We have a common accord, to work to bring funding together collectively. [Only then do] you have the possibility of longer sustainability of these funds.”

Kristin talked about the importance of partnering with others in the community and bringing everyone together to be as effective as possible. This creates unique and out-of-the-box ideas to continue to provide layered mental health support for students. She shared, “We partner with our local mental health board, and we make sure that we get together quarterly with all of the districts in the county, along with the providers in the county so that we can be sitting together talking about the needs of our community and what pieces and parts of those needs can be met by different agencies, providers, and district personnel.”

4. Diversify Funding Sources‍

It isn’t just grant funding that can be leveraged to sustain these mental health programs. Dr. Steinke shared, “Every district I've ever been in we have really focused on using Medicaid billing and funding as a funding stream and a strategy. Max out what you can earn and set a baseline of what you think you can maintain every year.”

At Daybreak, we partner with districts across the country to maximize funding from payers/insurers to reduce district costs while ensuring that every student has equitable access to mental health services. We bill and collect revenue from payers/insurers (private, commercial, Medicaid) to help fund the cost of mental health care for students.

5. Prove Impact Through Data‍

Leveraging data and continuing to monitor a program's success is essential. “We need to all be thinking from the moment that we receive any grant that we are taking data and looking at data to talk about how students are impacted by the additional supports and services that we're providing,” Kristen Schmidt shared. “If we don’t [run programs right] from the beginning, they’re absolutely going to end when the grant funds are done. I think what we've learned is that it's much more complex than just providing three layers of support and thinking that will address all of the issues. And so we're working on being able to do more of that and much more proactively.”

All of our panelists agreed that there will always be a need for school-based mental health support and there will always be a way to secure funding for it. 

Dr. Steinke shared, “We're hoping that the Department of Education will continue to offer these grants in the future. The need is not going away.” And, Dr. Johnson said, “I think as a district and as a region, as a state, and then as a nation, hopefully some of the results of these programs can show our leaders, especially when it comes to funding, how important these programs are.” 

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Grant Funds Discussed Throughout the Webinar:

• Prioritizing Resources to Impact Student Mental Health (PRISM) Project 
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Grant (SAMHSA)
• Stronger Connections Grant
• 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) Grant

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