Local education foundations have traditionally helped school districts plug budget holes, pick up the cost of teacher professional development, and raise money for technology upgrades and other high-priority capital projects.
In more recent years, though, some foundations have been helping districts with an emerging area of need: funding critical mental health and well-being efforts. It鈥檚 a direct response to the growing rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health diagnoses among young children and teenagers.
Many districts don鈥檛 have their own foundations鈥攐r even local philanthropists鈥攖o support the work they do. And many schools don鈥檛 even have parent-teacher associations to help raise smaller amounts of money for efforts that benefit students.
But for those that do have those resources, like the school district in Littleton, Colo., the support is making a notable difference. Since 2014, the Littleton Public Schools Foundation has raised about $1 million toward programs intended to improve students鈥� mental health and well-being.
The money raised in Littleton has paid for students to get emergency mental health treatment with vetted therapists and clinicians, as well as for workshops on suicide prevention, cyber safety, grief, resilience, and other emotional and mental well-being supports for students, staff and parents.
The Cherry Creek Schools Foundation, in the Denver suburb of Greenwood Village, is following in Littleton鈥檚 footsteps, recently establishing a mental health relief fund to help students get immediate mental healthcare, especially those who may not have insurance or whose insurance may not cover their treatment. It鈥檚 also giving out small grants to teachers to address students鈥� social-emotional well-being and development.
鈥淐hildren can鈥檛 learn if they are unwell,鈥� said Beth Best, the executive director of the Littleton Public Schools Foundation. 鈥淵ou can provide them with all the tools and all the experiences, but if they are unwell, mentally, they can鈥檛 learn. We thought, 鈥榃hy wouldn鈥檛 we support mental health?鈥� It鈥檚 probably the most important work that we do, that I鈥檓 the most proud of.鈥�
While K-12 is paying more attention to students鈥� mental health amid the pandemic, students were reporting higher levels of isolation before the public health crisis.
A school foundation responds to tragedy
In 2014, a shooting at Littleton鈥檚 Arapahoe High School left two students dead鈥攊ncluding the shooter who died by suicide. It was because of that tragedy as well as several youth suicides in the state that then-superintendent Scott Murphy decided to make student mental health a top priority.
Before that, the foundation had assisted the district with funding for other key areas, such as expanding technology and helping the school system to become one of the first in the state to set up wireless hubs.
But when Best asked Murphy, who was retiring what he hoped his legacy would be, he replied: mental health.
鈥淚 just looked at him, and I said 鈥榃hat?鈥欌�� Best recalled. 鈥淚t鈥檚 super-easy to say every student needs a pencil to write with, or a chair to sit. But when he said to me, 鈥楤eth, I want my legacy to be mental health because our students are struggling, our students need support, they need help, and we need to do something about it,鈥� I said 鈥極K, we鈥檙e in.鈥欌��
Best went back to the foundation鈥檚 board to announce that鈥檚 what they were going to do.
鈥淭here was no hesitation, I think, because we鈥檝e all seen it in own lives,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen it with our own children, we鈥檝e seen it with our own community. I don鈥檛 want to make it sound like it was easy. But we all knew it was the right thing.鈥�
The Littleton district had recently hired Nate Thompson as the director of social, emotional, and behavior services.
Thompson, a trained clinical social worker who had also worked as a family therapist, quickly figured out that one thing the district needed to address was barriers students faced to accessing mental health treatment.
For many parents, the problem was overcoming hurdles, whether it was finding transportation to take their child to treatment, finding a therapist who spoke their home language or understood their culture, or coming up with the money to pay for treatment.
One of the first things the district did with funds from the foundation was to create the mental health resource program (it was first called the collaborative intervention program), a network of vetted therapists that includes the languages they speak, their specialty areas, and insurance they accept.
Christine Casey Perry, the mental health resource coordinator for the school district, personally meets with and interviews all of the therapists before they鈥檙e added to the list.
The district then drew up contracts with the therapists in the network. If a student needs treatment, the district can cover the cost of up to a dozen weeks of treatment, depending on the need or the situation, with money from the foundation, Thompson said. Though the total varies, in some years, Thompson鈥檚 team has spent as much as $70,000 connecting students with mental health resources and treatment through the network.
Perry also has agreements with community organizations to provide individual or group therapy on campus when that鈥檚 more convenient for students.
鈥淲hat we needed to do was create a network and connect families鈥攔emove the barriers of travel and language,鈥� Thompson said.
The foundation has raised money to give elementary students heart-rate watches to learn self-regulation, and how to control their heart rates and breathing.
It鈥檚 also funded a student mental health leadership board, whose members give the district feedback on student mental health and well-being issues. They also review school climate surveys that students respond to and promote social-emotional awareness and kindness. Two recent graduates, who served on mental health student leadership board, will join Thompson鈥檚 team as part-time youth mental health advocates.
鈥淲e鈥檝e done stuff from normal cognitive behavioral therapy all the way up to helping kids go on specific outings related to overcoming addiction,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淥r when kids have lost a friend to suicide, we鈥檝e paid for kids to do some really creative things, experiential therapies and activities.鈥�
The foundation has picked up the cost for speakers, such as Jessica Lahey, author of 鈥淭he Gift of Failure,鈥� to speak to parents about resilience and rebounding from failure and sessions on cyber-safety for students whose mental health and wellness are affected bysocial media. A suicide-prevention program at the high schools also helps with leadership and empowerment. Funds have also gone toward remodeling the district鈥檚 counseling office and music and art programs infused with SEL lessons.
The foundation gives the funds to the district to allocate to areas where it sees a need. District officials are the experts, Best said.
鈥淲e look at ourselves as kind of the seed money,鈥� Best said. 鈥淚f they have an idea for a program or a resource they want to roll out to schools, but they don鈥檛 have the funding to pay for it, we partner with them.鈥�
Waving a 鈥榤agic wand鈥�
Most recently, the Littleton Public Schools Foundation got a $100,000 flexible donation, separate from the fund that supports mental health services for students, and gave it to the district to distribute.
鈥淲e said, 鈥業f you can wave a magic wand and do whatever you wanted in your school to help [address] mental health and wellness, what would you do?鈥� 鈥� Best said.
One high school converted an old conference room into a 鈥淶en den鈥� for students to seek solace if they鈥檙e feeling anxious, lonely, or having a bad day. They can see a counselor or take time for themselves, she said. Some elementary schools spent it on calming baskets, which are filled with comforting items like pillows, fidget spinners, and balls that students can use when they are overwhelmed. Some decorated calming corners. And some teachers asked for money to pay for professional development on how to identify students who are experiencing mental health challenges and how to support them.
In addition to the one-time 鈥渕agic wand鈥� fund, the foundation annually disburses small grants, between $1,000 and $5,000, to teachers. In recent years, the number of teachers applying to use the money for mental health-focused projects has increased, Best said.
鈥淪o educators鈥攖eachers鈥攁re asking for more resources, more support, more programs to support them in mental health within their classrooms,鈥� Best said.
鈥楴o strings鈥� financial support
鈥淗undreds and hundreds鈥� of students have benefited from the programs and initiatives the foundation has underwritten, Thompson said.
鈥淓very one of our schools has been touched by this partnership,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to count.鈥�
Not all districts are lucky enough to have a foundation to provide that extra financial boost. And foundations with deep pockets鈥攁nd large donor bases鈥攁re often working in wealthier communities鈥攁 dynamic that can making inequities worse between districts and schools.
But those monies can make a big difference and have some advantages for school systems, Thompson said.
Unlike many state and federal grants targeting mental health, drug addiction, and suicide prevention, the money from the foundation has no strings attached and no cumbersome reporting requirements that can eat into school staff鈥檚 time, Thompson said.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 really the big differentiator around having foundation money鈥攊t鈥檚 not tied to a specific thing like [when] you apply for a grant,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淭his allows you to be creative and flexible and meet kids鈥� needs and families鈥� needs in some different ways.鈥�
And districts do not have to worry about how to keep the programs running when the money runs out, he said.
鈥淲hen you create [financial support] as short-term grant programs, it always puts the burden on the local community to figure out how to sustain those programs,鈥� he said.
Thompson recognizes that many districts, particularly small and rural ones, aren鈥檛 likely to have foundations to help out.
鈥淵ou just have to get people together and start thinking creatively,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y experience is that there are people out there: There are organizations out there, there are state and federal grants out there to support this work and to support mental health. But it does take a small group of people working together and thinking creatively.鈥�
鈥淚f you are a small district and you don鈥檛 have your own foundation, can you talk to a local community non-profit? Can you apply for a county-level, state-level, or federal grant? Can you contract with someone who is from a metro area nearby who can come and spend a couple of days a week [in the district]?鈥� he continued. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really about getting that group of people together and thinking creatively outside of the box.鈥�
Making mental health a priority
The Cherry Creek Schools Foundation is following Littleton鈥檚 example and has also started to focus on mental health as a core priority.
It鈥檚 set up a mental health relief fund that it鈥檚 using to get students into emergency treatment without their families having to worry about how to pay for it.
The 55,000-student district is also building a mental health day-treatment center for students, which is scheduled to open this summer. The fund will help students whose insurance does not cover the cost of therapy, said Jill Henden, the foundation鈥檚 executive director.
The foundation鈥檚 mental health funds will also help cover the cost of continuing therapy sessions for students who use the district-covered Hazel Health, an online wellness company that鈥檚 providing students therapy free of charge.
The foundation raised about $75,000 last year during Colorado Gives Day to steer toward mental health programs.
鈥淲e are in this conversation for the long haul, but we really try to listen and understand how best we can leverage the dollars we raise to support the district,鈥� Henden said.
The foundation鈥檚 board has decided that supporting the mental well-being of the district鈥檚 students and staff to be 鈥渁t the core of what we want to do as a foundation going forward,鈥� she said.
鈥淚 would encourage other foundations to lean into that conversation,鈥� Henden said, 鈥渁nd to really understand how their district is helping students and staff through this crisis, and work in tandem to identify where the gaps in funding exist, and then encourage the foundations to try to fill those gaps.鈥�
While districts receive state and federal funding to support mental health programs, 鈥渋nnovative programs need seed funding from a different source,鈥� Henden said, and engaging with the experts in the district 鈥渋s a great way for foundations to step in and support the innovative ideas.鈥�
The next frontier for these foundations is expanding a similar level of support to teachers.
鈥淚 had a front row seat of how hard teachers worked during the pandemic,鈥� Best, the Littleton foundation鈥檚 executive director, said. 鈥淚 just think they are amazing people.鈥�
The Littleton Public Schools Foundation has run short-term campaigns to boost teachers鈥� morale, including an effort by parent-volunteers who wrote appreciation notes for teachers, while it considers longer-term strategies focusing on educators鈥� well-being. Teachers can also seek help through the district-provided employee assistance program. But the foundation and the district are thinking about strategic support in the longer term.
Thompson said that even as foundations are stepping up, it鈥檚 incumbent on state and federal governments to recognize that school districts are dealing with an unprecedented challenge that calls for permanent funding to help meet student and staff needs.
鈥淧art of the challenge in the community and in the nation right now is that there is such a patchwork and disconnected system of mental healthcare that it鈥檚 really requiring schools to be on the front lines of this,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淎t some point our state and national systems of education are going to have to reckon with the fact that schools are taking on a huge role in mental health and make [mental health care funding] a standard part of school funding.鈥�
