School Principals’ Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to the Normalization of School-Based Mental Health Services: A Multimethod Investigation

Importance, quality, and engagement: School mental health providers’ perceptions regarding within-district transition care coordination practices.

“…This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. (Carlock et al, 2023;Reinke et al, 2011), and district policy, which might impact the ability to engage in quality CC practices. We suggest future research on implementation strategies to support the uptake and maintenance of engaging with CC practices is the next step for expanding and strengthening SMH service delivery.…”

“…District-level leadership often sets the tone for the implementation of school change efforts such as SMH, which requires the collaboration of multiple entities including families, schools, and communities (Jones & Cater, 2020). While district leaders consistently see a need for the provision of MH services (Carlock et al, 2023) and many perceive socioemotional learning and MH to be important, there is limited understanding of these constructs (Jones & Cater, 2020). Specifically in relation to CC, school psychologists and other allied SMHPs (e.g., school social workers and school counselors) are well-positioned to facilitate the interdisciplinary nature of coordination (McClain et al, 2022; Shahidullah, 2019), yet more research is needed to understand the crucial elements of effective CC implementation, such as administrative support (McClain et al, 2022).…”

“…With the variable adoption of MTSS as a systematic framework for SMH service provision based on contextual factors within a state and/or district (Marsh & Mathur, 2020), it makes sense that SMHPs view their own CC practices as somewhat higher quality than school and district practices. The benefits of MH services for students are profound (NASP, 2016), yet SMH implementation is significantly impacted by barriers such as funding, limited SMHPs, limited training of school personnel (Carlock et al, 2023; Reinke et al, 2011), and district policy, which might impact the ability to engage in quality CC practices. We suggest future research on implementation strategies to support the uptake and maintenance of engaging with CC practices is the next step for expanding and strengthening SMH service delivery.…”