Full Service Schools Plus Pilot Program Making a Difference

When JCCI embarked in 2014 on an in-depth inquiry of the mental health system in Northeast Florida, it quickly became apparent that school-aged children in particular are at unacceptably high risk for mental health issues due to a myriad of factors beyond their control. One of the problems they face is a chronic shortage of mental health professionals working on-site in the public school system.

“Children are coming to school with mental health issues, and the school system is not really equipped to deal with those issues,” explained Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

“You’d be hard-pressed to talk to teachers today, especially in certain communities, and them not talk about the challenges children bring with them to the classroom, regarding behavior, sickness, and mental health,” Vitti added.

Full Service Schools Plus, a new pilot program introduced this school year in the DCPS system, is designed to help address this problem. Plus, a supplement to the existing Full Service Schools collaboration, will embed a therapist in each of the 12 schools within the Ribault High School Feeder pattern in order to increase students’ access to mental health services.

Full Service Schools, coordinated by United Way of Northeast Florida, is a collaboration of DCPS, Jacksonville Children’s Commission, the Chartrand Family Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, and the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, the goal of which is to connect DCPS students and families to a range of therapeutic, health and social services and address non-academic barriers to success in school.

The new pilot program is designed to eliminate some of the gaps in mental health services in public schools, and early results are encouraging with the number of referrals on pace to double over the 2014-2015 school year. If Full Service Schools Plus proves as successful as hoped, the concept is to expand it well beyond the 12 schools initially participating.

“Ideally, the Plus model would be in every school, or at least expanded enough that each community is touched,” said Vitti. “It only makes sense to provide the services at the school site because you have a captive audience, you have a consistency of attendance, and you have a level of trust and observation to identify the problem, but then to service the child there and work through the child’s challenges there,” he added.