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In 2023 the Maine Department of Education received $9 million dollars in funding through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act for schools to improve access to mental healthcare for students.
Two years since the program began, mental health professionals have been hired in all of the selected districts, but administrators say they are not sure how they will sustain the services when the money runs out.
Only two of the nine districts have been able to hire a daily mental health professional in all schools, and administrators say it is still a struggle to find providers willing to work in remote parts of the state.
“School counselors and general education social workers are definitely areas where we are lacking,” said Karen Paquette, assistant superintendent of Lewiston Public Schools, which received the most funding of the districts.
The nine districts selected to receive the funding span the state, from the western Maine towns of Franklin and Jay to Presque Isle in the north and Lubec in the east.
The districts received annual grants ranging from $63,208 to $248,644 based on the student population size. The districts receiving the money were identified as “high need” because they had low student to mental health provider ratios relative to the rest of the state and nation.
The money, some of which has already been distributed, will be split between funding to support new and existing staff ($5 million) and funding retention and recruitment efforts for providers ($4 million), according to the Maine Department of Education.
So far, $2 million has been distributed to the districts identified as having the fewest school-based mental health providers in the state.
