The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) released a set of guidelines for school mental health support Thursday.
These guidelines respond to the increase in students experiencing mental health challenges. About 63% of Michigan high school students have reported facing adverse childhood experiences, according to the 2019 Michigan Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Conversations between the MDE’s School Behavioral Health Unit and mental health professionals began in March 2023, Scott Hutchins, the Supervisor of the School Behavior Health Unit at the MDE, said. At the time, there were multiple subsections of the School Aid Fund to support student mental health and safety.
In 2019, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approved $31.3 million for intermediate school districts to provide care from a licensed master’s level behavioral health provider. That was followed by more mental health funding in subsequent years.
Hutchins said a lot of his work boiled down to helping states figure out what to do with this new pot of money.
“A lot of it was finding those helping professionals, and then figuring out how do we help those helping professionals provide important services in school?”
In fiscal year 2025, Whitmer signed into law more than $250 million in funding for children’s mental health/school safety.
The goal, Hutchins said, is to make people think more comprehensively about the available funds. Part of this begins with conducting a needs assessment before using a resource map to fill in the gaps, Hutchins said.
“That's where, again, those funds can come in if you're thinking about – from a comprehensive perspective – how can 31AA funds, which can be used for, again, activities and other things to improve student mental health, how can you fill in the gaps?”
The guidelines mention a multi-tier system of supports. Tier one includes “universal interventions,” like culture and climate interventions that would benefit every student. Tier two involves more targeted interventions for a smaller group of students. Tier three directs a “very few low percentage of students.” That involves more direct therapy services.
That final tier is where Hutchins anticipates rural, lower-income schools could face challenges. It also ties into staffing shortages that Michigan schools face.
“That's probably where I'd say we'd see the challenge is just having enough providers to meet the needs of all students that have been identified for those tier three services,” Hutchins said.
