Mental Health Assistance Plan approved for Oasis schools
The Oasis Charter School Mental Health Assistance Allocation Plan for the upcoming school year was approved Tuesday, which will help fund school counselors and social workers.
Jacqueline Collins, superintendent of the city of Cape Coral’s municipal school system, said the Florida Department of Education requires every charter and traditional school to have a Youth Mental Health Assistance Allocation Plan, which was created to provide funding to assist in implementing the school-based mental health assistance program.
“Each school has to develop a program that includes training classroom teachers and other staff to detect and respond to mental health concerns,” Collins said.
The multi-tiered system of support is designed to deliver assistance and assessment diagnosis, prevention and recovery services to students and families, she said.
There is a strict time frame when responding to issues — 15 days to initiate the assistance, and 30 calendar days to refer someone to a community-based provider if something additional is needed.
Collins said they also make sure they have a school resource officer on all four campuses to assist in providing services in case a Baker Act — an involuntary commitment for someone in danger of harming themselves or others — or family visits are needed.
Every school has the same plan and the funding allocation, based on enrollment, is in the neighborhood of $57,000 per school, she said. The money is spent on social workers and counselors.
Although the allocation does not cover the full cost of the employees, it helps, officials with the four-school municipal school system said.
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