Caring for Our Students’ Mental Health

In rural, high-poverty communities across upstate New York, our students face growing mental health needs. Rates of anxiety, depression, trauma exposure, and even suicidality continue to rise. Yet, too often, there simply aren’t enough trained professionals to meet those needs. In some of our districts, the student-to-mental-health-provider ratio is an alarming 1,120 to 1—far from the recommended 250 to 1.

When the federal government passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, it offered a rare lifeline: nearly $1 billion in grants to expand school-based mental health services. Our districts, Seneca Falls and Lyons, seized the opportunity. Recognizing that no one district could tackle this alone, we built something bigger: the Wellness Workforce Collaborative (WWC), a partnership of 28 school districts, eight colleges, and numerous nonprofits and state agencies, all committed to growing a sustainable pipeline of school-based mental health professionals.

The WWC takes a comprehensive, multipronged approach. For high school juniors and seniors, we launched a Grow Your Own program that offers dual-enrollment college courses, introducing students to careers in mental health and wellness. Graduate students pursuing counseling and social work degrees receive intensive, paid field placements in our schools, while receiving high-quality supervision and mentorship. For existing school-based professionals, we provide professional development, coaching, and even tuition assistance to help counselors earn additional licensure.

The results have been extraordinary. In our first year, 56 high school students enrolled in the Grow Your Own courses, and they all passed. We’ve trained 155 graduate student interns who, collectively, have provided more than 8,300 counseling sessions to our students. Of those, 89 percent have accepted full-time positions in our schools. Our coaching program has helped retain 100 percent of the school counselors, social workers, and psychologists who participate. The program isn’t just filling jobs; it’s building strong, lasting relationships between providers and the communities they serve.

We’ve seen countless stories that illustrate the power of this approach. One intern, for example, connected with a student from a non-English-speaking family who had previously struggled to trust providers. Because the intern shared the student’s language and cultural background, she built trust not only with the student but with the family, helping them navigate both school and future planning.

With these promising outcomes, we were optimistic about the future. The original federal grants were designed to run through 2029, giving us time to build long-term sustainability. But in April 2025, we were abruptly informed that our funding would be discontinued at the end of the year, and that any unspent funds from prior years would be rescinded.

The impact of this decision has been devastating. Without the federal support anchoring our work, we were forced to cut our graduate intern cohort from 47 to 31 students this year. That reduction means nearly 2,000 students will lose direct access to counseling services. Eight of our current school counselors, who were relying on tuition support to pursue licensure as mental health counselors, are now left to fund their own education. We also had to close two family support centers that offered free counseling services to families—a loss that can’t be measured in numbers alone.

For the communities we serve, this isn’t an abstract policy debate—it’s personal. These services provide vital support to students and families facing significant adversity. To pull them away midstream undermines the very goals that these federal grants were designed to achieve.

We have not accepted this quietly. With the help of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who sent formal letters to the US secretary of education and held a press conference, and support from Senator Chuck Schumer, we are fighting for reinstatement of these funds. Our districts have filed formal appeals, and state leaders are exploring legal action. We remain hopeful, especially in light of recent federal rulings reinstating other rescinded research grants. Meanwhile, we continue raising awareness through media interviews and outreach to elected officials at every level.

At the same time, we are working creatively to sustain and expand what we’ve built. New York’s unique Boards of Cooperative Educational Services system allows districts to pool resources and contract for shared services. Through these regional partnerships, we are finding ways to continue the Grow Your Own program, expand professional development and coaching, and explore alternative funding streams to keep internships viable.

The students themselves continue to remind us why this work matters. As one high school student in the Grow Your Own program reflected: “I’ve learned to have more empathy because you never know what someone is going through.”

That lesson resonates deeply with educators everywhere. In an era when young people face unprecedented mental health challenges, we need bold, collaborative, and sustainable solutions. Our experience shows what’s possible when federal, state, and local partners work together to invest in the future of school-based mental health. We remain committed to ensuring that this work continues—because our students deserve nothing less.

Hennessey Lustica is the project director for the Wellness Workforce Collaborative (WWC) and the Seneca Falls Central School District’s community schools mental health director. Stephanie Betts is the WWC’s project coordinator and the Seneca Falls community schools coordinator. Cristi Kuhn is a WWC Grow Your Own coordinator and a Lyons Central School District school counselor.

[Photo courtesy of the Wellness Workforce Collaborative]