Policy

The SS/HS Initiative set an overarching goal to increase family engagement in schools. One key feature of this goal focused on the needs of parents and caregivers who struggled in navigating multiple child serving systems and in accessing services for their child with serious mental and/or behavioral health needs. As a result, Wisconsin’s state team partnered with Wisconsin Family Ties (WFT), the statewide family organization, to establish Parent Peer Support (PPS) providers in LEA’s across the state as a strategy to connect families, schools, and community.

Wisconsin’s SS/HS State Team and LEA’s worked in collaboration with the state Pyramid Model Implementation Team to expand early childhood social emotional learning (SEL) and development across the state through 1) broad implementation of the Pyramid Model, and 2) improving early identification of children at risk for SEL difficulties. By 2017, Wisconsin had 20 additional Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE) trainers with the capacity to reach 180 districts and community partners; and 103 new Positive Solutions for Families trainers.

The Michigan Health and Education Partnership (MHEP) was created and expanded from its original SS/HS structure to facilitate bidirectional communication among state and local partners to support best practices, integration, and services that contribute to successful educational, physical, and behavioral health outcomes for all children and families.

Approximately 20% of all children have some sort of mental health issue and only one third of those receive services.  Of those students who do receive mental health services, 70% get them in the school setting.

This e-book describes innovative strategies that the six Project LAUNCH grantees funded from 2010-2015 used to improve outcomes for children, families and communities.