Proposed cuts to New Jersey school-based mental health services ‘unconscionable,’ educators say – Politico

In many communities, school-based services — which have been around since the 1980s — are the primary source of mental health providers for the tens of thousands of kids they serve, especially for students and families that can’t afford or can’t access therapy or counseling services outside of schools.

“Covid is going to bring a generation of mental health problems that we as a society haven’t even begun to understand,” said Dave Seegert, the school-based program director overseeing mental health services in the Brick Township and Lakewood public school districts in Ocean County. “I haven’t even wrapped my mind around the amount of kids we kept out of the hospital last year.”

During the pandemic, students quarantined away from friends, mentors and social activities have faced isolation, depression and for some, unsafe or unstable home environments, mental health experts say.

In South Brunswick, Superintendent Scott Feder said the impact of the proposed budget cuts will be compounded because his district in Middlesex County partners with Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care to provide mental health services for students.

“We’re all confused. I’m flabbergasted. … School-based youth services literally save lives,” Feder said.

Feder said his district pays in about $140,000 and Rutgers contributes more than $500,000 for seven support staff members and a full range of mental health services. If the governor’s proposed cuts go through, he said, he’ll have to find nearly half a million dollars in his budget — which is already losing $1.9 million from planned reallocation of state school aid — to prop up the program.

“The [Department of Education’s] Road Back reopening guidance says ‘districts should prioritize the health and emotional well-being of staff and students above all else.’ … You can’t say ‘above all else’ but cut funding for it,” he said. “It’s counterintuitive and sabotages the efforts districts have outlined in their reopening plans.”

Schools have been frantically submitting and revising their reopening plans as guidance from the state has changed from mandating some in-person learning to allowing districts to reopen remote-only. Many districts have cited their school-based mental health services as a crucial factor in their ability to provide a safe and healthy environment for students.

Seegert said hundreds of kids in Brick and Lakewood are on Medicaid, and without the school-based services, he’s not sure what they would do.

“They’re certainly not walking 10 miles to a therapist’s office to pay $100 out of pocket,” Seegert said.

Measuring the impact of these services is also hard to quantify, he said.

“When you have students dropping out, students completing suicide, students in the hospital that’s how you measure need, but it’s too late by then,” Seegert said.

He estimated that last year, the school-based services program he oversees in the two districts saw 937 students, or 25 percent of the general student population. Statewide, more than 30,000 students participate in school-based youth services, he estimates.

Seegert said he and others are planning to do home visits in October, giving “doorstep assessments” to check on kids doing remote or hybrid learning. Without the funding, he said, it’s possible no one will be checking in on students’ mental health for months.

One high school student enrolled in Brick public schools told POLITICO the school-based services have been a vital resource for her as she faced family challenges that led her to move in with her aunt and cousins just weeks before schools were shut down in March.

The student, who asked that her name not be used to protect her privacy, said she’s had weekly calls with her school-based counselor, which have allowed her to express her battle with anxiety, depression and other mental health concerns during the quarantine.

“The person that I was when I first moved to Brick is completely different from who I am now and I give all of the credit to [my counselor] for that,” she said in a phone interview. “If [the program] goes away it’s gonna suck because my counselor is somebody that I created my bond with after having trust issues. … It is going to be a struggle.”

Advocates are mobilizing this week, calling legislators, sending letters and petitions to their city councilors and to Murphy’s office, pleading with those who control the state’s purse strings to reinstate the $14 million the program received in funding last year.

But Moore, the Hunterdon Central superintendent, said it’s possible many schools don’t even know they’ll likely be losing these services in the first weeks of reopening because no one from Murphy’s administration told them the cuts were coming.

“We were stunned. … We didn’t receive notice from DCF, DOE or anyone. It wasn’t even in a tweet from the governor,” Moore said. “Some superintendents still have yet to learn that the program they are counting on may have been pulled from underneath them.”

Mary Abrams, the senior health policy analyst at New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies said her organization is still trying to clarify what’s going on with the cuts as they’ve spent the past year talking to lawmakers and the governor’s office about potentially expanding the school-based services, not eliminating them.

“Nobody can understand the logic behind it,” she said. “The feedback I’ve gotten is they said these kids and families can get these services elsewhere. That is not going to happen.”

Nicole Brossoie, a spokesperson for the state Department of Children and Families, said in an email the cuts to the school-based youth services programs “must be viewed within the context of the increase of $45 million to the Department’s budget to support the NJ Children’s System of Care.” The department, she said, intends to work with DOE to promote the Children’s System of Care “as an effective and appropriate alternative,” she said.

“Over the last 20 years, New Jersey has built one of the most robust, statewide networks of care for children and adolescents with behavioral health needs and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities in the country,” Brossoie said.

There is some hope that the programs can continue to run if the federal government’s $14 million contribution comes through as it has in years past, but Seegert said he’s unsure the federal government will give if the state eliminates the program.

“This is a program other states would die for and you have it in your pocket,” Seegert said of the school-based services. “The perception from the state is that we’re just twirling our thumbs waiting for crisis to walk in the doors and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

In the meantime, lawmakers are signing on to a bipartisan budget resolution to restore funding for the School-Based Youth Services Programs. The resolution was submitted by Assemblymember Mila Jasey (D-Essex) and co-sponsored by Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren).