PolicyCore

The SMART Center’s effort to use policy and financing strategies to take effective School Mental Health to Scale in Washington State

Our state is in the midst of a children’s mental health crisis. Nearly 100 Washington youth die by suicide in any given year. The rate of young people who experience depression and suicidality has increased 35% in the past decade.

We envision a Washington where all children and youth are mentally well, and youth suicide is a thing of the past. To achieve this outcome, we envision our state as a national leader in investing in evidence-based policies and strategies to address the current crisis in children’s mental health where the vast majority of children and youth already are – in their schools.

A plan of action

Effective school mental health is unlikely to be achieved at scale without accountability structures, quality monitoring, investment in the school-based workforce, and technical assistance to schools and districts.

Our Case for School Mental Health brief highlights key statistics on the benefit of – and need for – comprehensive school mental health services. The “case for school mental health” does not just point to a general recommendation for increased availability of school mental health services, but more specific policy and funding recommendations.

Our 2025 Policy & Funding Recommendations include:

  1. Establish and resource a Washington State lead agency for school-based behavioral health.
  2. Establish and fund an entity Technical Assistance & Training Network (TATN) to provide schools with the support, resources, and training necessary to coordinate comprehensive supports across the behavioral health continuum for their students.
  3. Support the stability, skills, and diversity of the school-based behavioral health workforce.
  4. Promote best practices in universal behavioral health screening in schools within the Washington MTSS Framework.

Download our Case for School Mental Health brief here.

Our Partners

The SMART Center is also a member of the School-Based Behavioral Health and Suicide Prevention Subcommittee of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group (CYBHWG).

2025 Legislative Session Bill Tracking

To stay up to date on Washington legislation impacting children and youth, Partners for our Children prepares and updates a comprehensive bill tracker each week during the legislative session.

You can also visit Children’s Funding Project to track federal, state, and local public investments in youth programs.

Interested in school mental health and youth suicide prevention legislation from previous legislative sessions? See our bill trackers for prior years below:

Interested in participating or have questions?

Click here to join our mailing list! You can also email us at uwsmart@uw.edu or contact Dr. Eric J. Bruns, UW SMART PolicyCore Lead, at ebruns@uw.edu.