Education and School Issues

Coordination and integration with local educational authorities (LEAs), school officials, and teachers is essential if home-based services are to be effective.  There are enormous incentives for schools and school staff to partner with parents and participate in home-based services planning and delivery for their students, including:

• The ease of communicating with a single care manager and single treatment team directing the provision of mental health service planning
• Access to mental health consultation and training on effective interventions and strategies to meet the child’s mental health needs;
• The availability of new home-based services designed to support children in a variety of community settings, including school or after school programs;
• Opportunities to integrate mental health needs, goals and objectives into the IEP, with external resources to assist in meeting these goals; and
• Resources which can reduce interruptions in a student’s educational services due to mental health crises, hospitalization, or disciplinary actions.   

To achieve these benefits, the child’s teacher or relevant school officials must be conscious of, and active participants in, the treatment planning process.  A care manager can provide valuable information and resources to the educational Team.  Similarly, an understanding of the child’s educational strengths, challenges, and school performance, is critical to an effective treatment planning process. Treatment plans should be coordinated with, and where appropriate integrated into, the child’s IEP, if any.  This approach can promote continuity of care, consistency of interventions, and the ability of students to effectively generalize skills across multiple settings.

Additional resources are available for school districts and personnel, including Reforming the Medicaid Children’s Mental Health System: What Schools Should Know about Rosie D. and recommendations for the integration of educational and mental health needs in the Governor’s Report on Education.