Hofmeister announces
school mental health grants totaling $12.5 million
OKLAHOMA CITY (October 5, 2018) – On the heels of a trauma summit focused on equipping
educators to respond to students suffering from toxic stress, State
Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister today announced that the
Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) has received three federal grants
totaling $12.5 million to support districts in meeting the mental health
needs of their students.
“Far too many of our children in Oklahoma are enduring
severe hardship,” said Hofmeister. “The OSDE stands ready to respond to
districts in crisis. We are grateful that grantors recognize not only the
gravity of our needs but have certainty that we will spend these critical
dollars so our teachers receive the training they need to most effectively
serve their students.”
In the largest of the grants, Project AWARE (Advancing
Wellness and Resiliency in Education), the U.S. Department of Health &
Human Services awarded $8.6 million over five years for prevention,
intervention and treatment services to three Oklahoma districts – Elk City,
Weatherford and Woodward – selected due to the scarcity of mental health
resources west of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
Project AWARE will provide two new counselors for each
district and opportunities for established district counselors to pursue
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) credentials through a partnership with
Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) in Weatherford.
The School Climate Transformation Grant, funded through the
U.S. Department of Education, awards Oklahoma $3.7 million over five years. Grant
funding will include the development of five technical assistance centers in
Hominy, Durant, Lawton, Oklahoma City and Woodward. A behavioral specialist at
each center will train 10 schools on transforming school climate through
implementation of a multi-tiered behavioral framework that integrates the
Positive Behavioral Intervention System (PBIS) model. In addition, OSDE will
provide opioid addiction prevention training through a collaboration with the
School of Pharmacy at SWOSU.
The Oklahoma Prevention and Mental Health Project, a three-year,
$148,661 U.S. Department of Justice grant, will benefit 303 students in
Washington Public Schools and include prevention curriculum, mental health
awareness and health insurance campaigns, mental health screenings and training
for teachers and families, and intervention and treatment services for students.
To ensure the greatest possible number of students will be
served, the grants will use a braided funding approach. National trainers hired
under the Project AWARE grant, for example, will train the School Climate
specialists on mental health intervention strategies. These specialists, in turn,
will provide training to the schools in their programs.
“These grants give Oklahoma the opportunity to implement
prevention and intervention strategies that include the best training in the
nation on mental health prevention and intervention,” said Hofmeister. “In
order to lift academic outcomes, we must first ensure we have met students’
basic needs for safety, trust and security. The programs funded by these grants
will provide critical data on how to improve mental health outcomes among our
students that can be leveraged statewide to benefit all students in need.”
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