State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Senator Mike McGuire (D-North Coast) today joined mental health leaders and professionals to urge support of a bill that would provide grants of $25,000 to aspiring clinicians who commit to serving two years in communities of high need. Seeking solutions to lower student-to-counselor ratios in schools is not a new effort or one unique to California. However, through Senate Bill (SB) 1229, California is pursuing an ambitious plan to help recruit 10,000 professionals to help support the growing mental health needs of students. The California Department of Education (CDE) is proud to partner with Senator McGuire on this priority legislation.

“During this pandemic, our students have experienced extreme levels of depression, we’ve seen a doubling in the percentage of Black students who have expressed suicidal feelings, and we know there’s an increase in hospitalizations for young people and adults,” said Superintendent Thurmond. “California has had enough mental health professionals to provide services to about 30 percent of those who needed it even before the pandemic, and those challenges were even greater in rural communities. We’ve got to build out our school workforce in many places: teachers and classified staff and certainly mental health clinicians in order to meet the needs of our six million students.”

Source: SPI Supports Mental Health Clinicians Bill – Year 2022 (CA Dept of Education)