The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) created its new Office of Behavioral Health and Wellness on Friday, and the agency explained it will operate using resources made available by the Right Help, Right Now program created at the behest of Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) last year.
A press release from the Virginia agency explained the new office seeks to “address the unprecedented rise in mental health and behavioral challenges facing Virginia students post pandemic” with what one spokesman called “wraparound services” to keep students emotionally capable of learning in school.
A spokesman for Glenn Youngkin’s office told The Virginia Star, “The Office of Behavioral Health and Wellness will be a critical component in helping staff members support our students across the Commonwealth. Additional funding will further help the team proactively provide comprehensive resources and technical assistance to coordinate solutions to challenges school divisions are facing in Virginia.”
The Office of Behavioral Health and Wellness will be a critical component in helping staff members support our students across the Commonwealth. Additional funding will further help the team proactively provide comprehensive resources and technical assistance to coordinate solutions to challenges school divisions are facing in Virginia.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons lamented in a statement that the commonwealth’s “students and schools are facing different issues than they faced before the pandemic,” and said the “office will bring a multifaceted approach to better equip educators, staff and parents in supporting our students and responding when a crisis occurs.”
The agency’s press release explained it will offer behavioral health and instructional support, which includes “school counseling, school discipline, the causes and impact of chronic absenteeism, and the effects on children and teens who rely on social media.” Health and wellness on Virginia’s campuses will also be supported from the office, which will include “emphasizing the dangers of fentanyl and its spreading use amongst children and teens,” as well as “overdose prevention.”
Additional student services the office will support involve “working with military families and students in foster care, as well as equipping students for post-secondary access and success.”
Youngkin’s Right Help, Right Now program is the product of 24 bills the governor supported to expand access to mental health resources and modernize the commonwealth’s mental health laws. The initiative attempted to improve insurance coverage for mental health, increase coverage by private insurance companies for mobile crisis teams, and to improve wait times for Virginians being held under a temporary detention order.
Success of the Right Help, Right Now initiative does not appear to be even across Virginia’s agencies. The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Human Services cut a deputy commissioner position in November, when the agency explained the staff reduction would allow it to redistribute resources for the Right Help, Right Now reforms. At the time, the agency said it would create a new office for “delivery of behavioral health and developmental disability services at the community level.”
The shakeup came following an October report which found the agency failed to make sure individuals were granted a mental health appointment within 10 days of their initial assessment, which the Richmond Times-Dispatch explained was a “critical goal” tied to Youngkin’s initiative.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Helping Student” by VDOE.
