Fredericksburg School Division Chosen to Participate in National Student Mental Health Initiative
The city school division is the only local division selected.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Fredericksburg City Public Schools was recently chosen to be the only local school division to participate in a national initiative that seeks to build and strengthen networks for supporting student mental and behavioral health.
Amelia Jurlando, psychologist at James Monroe High School; school social workers Barrie Massey and Jennifer Bunn; Kimberly Cunningham, counselor at Walker-Grant Middle School; and Maris Wyatt, director of student support services for the division, will participate in the multi-state initiative.
“Staying the Course: Building ECHO Networks for School Behavioral Health” will convene state-level education departments, local school divisions, and school-based teams to meet monthly starting this year.
The goal is to discuss and develop ways to “build sustainable infrastructure that supports school behavioral health integration,” according to a description of the initiative. It will encourage collaboration both vertically, from state to division to school, and horizontally, between states, school divisions, and individual schools.
Four state-level education agencies—the Virginia Department of Education along with the education departments of Utah, Oklahoma, and Michigan—were chosen for the project, and Fredericksburg was the only local division selected from a pool of applicants.
Project ECHO, which is providing the framework for the discussion, wrote in response to Fredericksburg’s application, “Fredericksburg City Public Schools appears well-positioned to collaborate towards capacity building and implementation efforts. We believe your state’s participation will contribute meaningfully to the collaborative shared learning environment of school behavioral health professionals.”
In a press release, Fredericksburg City Public Schools wrote, “We are so excited for this opportunity for our division to participate in this national project to enhance the lives of our students and families.”
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