Research

Connecting mental health and Oklahoma schools

Thursday, March 18, 2021

In new report, we offer a comprehensive view of school-based mental health services in Oklahoma as they stand now, examine best practices for further unifying schools and providers, and issue recommendations for legislators, agency leaders and communities for a more sustainable path forward.

• Summary #1: Why does this matter? What do we do about it? For a summary, click here.
• Summary #2: What’s the status of multi-tiered systems of support in our state? Click here.
• Full report: For detailed findings and recommendations, click here.

Oklahoma schools serve about 700,000 students with varying social, emotional and mental health needs. Untreated mental health issues in students impact educational success, as well as social and emotional well-being. In a post-COVID-19 world, addressing this unmet need where children are — in school — is critical to Oklahoma’s education and economic future.

To address these issues in a sustainable, systemic way, Oklahoma must pursue multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). This approach is the best practice for aligning student needs with available community resources, connecting schools and communities in a shared cause. Only around 19% of students attend a school or district receiving funding to implement this framework, but significant effort has been made by state agency leaders to reach this point.

Solidifying the role of MTSS in Oklahoma requires additional alignment of local and state efforts, funding, and expansion of training and technical assistance capacity.