Fishers, Indiana – At least one member of the Hamilton Southeastern School Board has expressed public opposition to an application for a federal grant that would provide multiple millions of dollars to bolster mental health programs and expand student access to mental health services.
The grant from the United States Department of Education in the amount of $5.7 million that was awarded as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is the most significant competitive grant that the school district has ever been awarded.
At the school board meeting that will take place on Wednesday evening at 7 o’clock, there is a discussion about the mental health grant scheduled to take place. The board room of the Hamilton Southeastern Schools Central Office, located at 13485 Cumberland Road, will be the location of the meeting of the school board.
Even though these meetings are being broadcast live online, parents are strongly encouraged to show up in person.
According to the leaders of the schools, the grant could be put to use over the course of the next five years to hire additional school counselors for secondary school students, additional school social workers to assist students in elementary school, and additional school psychologists for the benefit of the entire school district.
The application process was overseen and directed by Brooke Lawson, who is the mental health and school counseling coordinator for HSE Schools. According to Lawson, the school district has identified a gap between the needs of students and the mental health services that are currently available.
Lawson said, “We are the fourth largest district in the state of Indiana and our schools are not as staffed as some of the other larger districts across the state, so I think we were able to really show that we had a need and that we have those large caseloads.”
