Safe and Supportive Schools: Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP) Demonstration Grant Program

Nicole White
202.453.6729
Mental.Health@ed.gov

This program will provide grants to support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers with the goal of increasing the number and diversity of high-quality, trained providers available to address the shortages of mental health service professionals in high need schools. Small, rural schools fall under the definition of high need local education agencies (LEAs).

Partnerships must provide opportunities to place graduate students in school-based mental health fields into high need schools to complete required field work, credit hours, internships, or related training, as applicable, for the degree or credential program of each student. In addition to the placement of graduate students, grantees may also develop mental health career pathways as early as secondary school, through career and technical education opportunities, or through paraprofessional support degree programs at local community or technical colleges.

Competitive priorities include:

1. Increase the number of qualified school-based mental health services providers in high need LEAs who are from diverse backgrounds or from communities served by the high need LEAs
2. Promote evidence based provider preparation programs or professional development programs that are inclusive with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, language, disability, and for students who identify as LGBTQI+, and that prepare school-based mental health services providers to create culturally and linguistically inclusive and identity-safe environments for students
3. Partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), or other minority serving institutions (MSIs)

Eligible applicants include high need local education agencies (LEAs) or state education agencies (SEAs)/institutions of higher education (IHEs) in partnership with a high need LEA.

Partnerships must include one or more high-need LEAs or an SEA on behalf of one or more high-need LEAs and one or more eligible institutions of higher education.

Award ceiling: $1,000,000
Award floor: $400,000
Project period: Up to 5 years
Estimated number of awards: 23-33
Estimated total program funding: $19,000,000

Links to the full announcement, application instructions, the application package, and the online application process are available through grants.gov.

Applicant assistance

• Applicant webinar #2
  (Registration required)
  April 29, 2024
  1:00 p.m. Eastern
• Applicant resource document
• Technical assistance webpage