Mental health advocates are pushing back on Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s plan to create a new system of school-based youth mental health services to replace a model dependent on regional behavioral health providers that was established by her predecessor four years ago.
Sherrill wants to spend $33 million to launch what she calls Spark, for School-based Partnerships for Access and Resilience for Kids, to expand access to mental health services within school facilities. Her budget plan directs the state Department of Education to create a competitive grant program that school districts could tap to pay for on-site mental health professionals starting next fall.
New Jersey sought to expand behavioral health programs in schools across the state four years ago under former Gov. Phil Murphy when it launched NJ4S, or the New Jersey Statewide Student Support Services program.
The Department of Children and Families, which oversees NJ4S, hired behavioral health organizations to run 15 regional hubs that work with local school districts. These organizations provide schools with prevention-based wellness programs, tailored group sessions for more at-risk kids, and individual or family counseling sessions for those most in need. Programs are offered in schools, libraries, and community centers, or online.
“Our experience with NJ4S has really been positive,” Andrew Becker, a student support services supervisor with North Bergen High School, told the New Jersey Monitor.
Morgan Thompson is president and CEO of Prevention Links, a behavioral health organization that serves as the Union County hub for NJ4S.
“There was a lot of time, thought, and effort that went into NJ4S,” Thompson told the New Jersey Monitor. “It’s emerging as a standard that other states want to emulate.”
While the program took time to ramp up, some 1,134 schools connected to NJ4S and more than 550,000 students, parents, and staff participated in one of its programs over the first two school years, according to the Department of Children and Families. Of those, nearly 2,300 people received one-on-one counseling. Some schools also hire mental health professionals to serve students on site, or contract with outside provider groups on their own.
NJ4S drew criticism from the start from critics, including some lawmakers, who feared it would replace existing programs that worked. Julie Borst, executive director of the advocacy group Save Our Schools, called the implementation of NJ4S “terrible” and said the program’s prevention initiatives were largely duplicative, while counseling options were insufficient, especially for students in younger grades.
Borst, a member of Sherrill’s youth mental health transition team, said NJ4S was “a very expensive mistake.”
“I know for some superintendents it has worked very well. The majority we talked to said it did not,” Borst told the New Jersey Monitor. “It still remains a disappointment to me.”
‘Kids are struggling’
Sherrill’s $60.7 billion budget proposal provides initial money for Spark and zeros out funding for NJ4S, which received $43 million in the current state budget and nearly $90 million over the two previous years.
When Sherill introduced her spending plan to lawmakers last month, she said the current model of care “has not been good enough for our kids.”
“Kids are struggling with pressures that didn’t exist when we were young: the always-on online culture, fierce competition, worries about school violence, and concerns about the future,” she said.
Lawmakers now have less than three months to craft and adopt a final budget before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
“Through Spark, the Sherrill Administration will build a more coordinated and comprehensive school-based mental health system — one that focuses on prevention, resilience, and the provision of timely and high-quality care,” says a Sherrill administration preview of its budget plan.
The preview calls for a “close collaboration” between the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Education as the state shifts from NJ4S to Spark “to ensure the least disruptive experience possible for students and families.”
Grants through Spark are to be available starting next fall to K-12 districts with public, charter, or renaissance schools, the preview notes. Funds can be used to pay new or existing licensed mental health providers who can provide individual counseling to kids at school, it says, and the program will prioritize high-needs districts.
It is not clear where Sherrill got the idea for Spark, and her office provided no additional details on its genesis. Sherrill prioritized youth mental health during her gubernatorial campaign and signed an executive order soon after taking office that calls on state agencies to focus on children’s emotional wellness and backs efforts to better protect kids from social media.
Melba Mullins, the student assistance coordinator for Union County’s Hillside school district, told the New Jersey Monitor that the variety of programs available under NJ4S — which include services aimed at preventing behavioral health issues, others designed to intervene when problems emerge, and treatment for students who need help — make it valuable to a wide range of children.
About NJ4S, she said, “All I do is sing its praises.”
“You don’t want to wait until something happens,” Mullins said. “You also want to take care of the population that’s on the straight and narrow,” so they stay on track, she added.
Mullins urged the governor to visit schools like hers where the program is working.
“One bad apple – one bad story – cannot define an entire organization,” she said of NJ4S criticism.
Thompson, with Prevention Links, agreed that more counseling is needed for kids who are struggling. But there will never be enough funding to scale school-based programs sufficiently to meet all the needs of kids, she said, while the NJ4S model has the potential to reach every school in the state. She praised prevention programs as effective, low-cost ways to keep the larger population of kids healthy and help those with less-severe problems avoid a crisis.
“How are we ever going to get out of a youth mental health crisis if all we are doing is putting out the fires?” Thompson asked.
If Sherrill’s proposal is adopted as drafted, Thompson warned, “fewer schools are going to be served; fewer students will have services. There’s no way around that.”
Supporters of NJ4S said abandoning the program now also squanders the taxpayer resources used to build the program, including some federal COVID-19 relief aid intended for one-time purchases like this, Thompson said.
“When we talk about waste, that sounds like a lot of waste,” she said.
Increased need
No one seems to question the need for services.
A 2023 report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that some metrics of youth mental health have improved in the years since COVID-19 led to widespread school closures, but the 10-year trend suggests high school students are more anxious and depressed than in the past.
Four in ten high school students described feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness, 2 in 10 had seriously considered suicide, and 1 in 10 had attempted to kill themselves, the CDC found. Female and LGBTQ+ students experienced higher rates of depression, and the rate of suicide attempts was twice as high for LGBTQ+ kids when compared to the age group in general.
Diane Travers, senior director of programs at the NJ4S Essex County hub, told members of the Senate budget committee on March 30 that her program — the state’s largest — serves more than 100,000 children in 131 public and private schools. Across New Jersey, staff are already trained and embedded in communities, she said.
“But beyond these numbers, this is about impact. NJ4S works because it is accessible, community-based, and proactive. We go into schools. Students don’t need to find us,” Travers told the committee.
Becker, at North Bergen High School, said he has seen the value in NJ4S, which can help kids with things like absenteeism, academic performance, or problems at home. And, he said, it eliminates many barriers families face in getting care.
“Number one, it’s on site, so you don’t have any transportation issues. Number two, it’s immediate. Number three, it’s free,” he said.
It’s not easy for parents to find a mental health professional on their own, Becker said, and it can take more than a month to get an appointment. The cost can also be prohibitive, he said. Securing a student counselor through NJ4S takes less than two weeks, he said, and kids can enroll in up to 16 one-on-one sessions.
Mental health professionals for children “are very difficult to find. Even with insurance there’s a long, long waiting list,” Becker said.
About NJ4S, he said, “I would miss it if it leaves, definitely.”
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