Report Publish Date: May 1, 2025
This journal article describes a study of the rollout of a school-based mental health model in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The researchers wanted to see if having mental health professionals in their schools improved student’s access to mental health services and prescription drug treatment as well as their performance and behavior at school and their juvenile justice outcomes.
The researchers find that when students have access to school-based mental health services, they are more likely to use outpatient mental health services and less likely to report having attempted suicide, compared to students who don’t have access to mental health services at school.
However, the researchers did not find evidence that school-based mental health services affected attendance, test scores, or substance use.
In a school-based mental health services model, clinicians work in schools, diagnose and treat mental health issues, and refer students to further services and providers who can prescribe medication, if needed. The mental health clinicians are not school employees; they work for a community-based service provider and students’ insurance providers are billed for services. Uninsured students receive free care, paid for by the state. The clinicians also train teachers to identify students with mental health needs and refer them to services.
This promising approach has been well described but is little studied. The researchers wanted to find more evidence for the model’s efficacy, since many policy makers have been advocating for investing in it.
As school-based mental health services were rolled out across Hennepin County, the researchers studied its effects on student populations over time and compared them to students at schools that had not yet adopted the model.
The researchers used three data sources:
“As policymakers grapple with how best to address the crisis of child and adolescent mental health, information on the costs and benefits of different interventions is critical.”
—Ezra Golberstein and Irina Zainullina, University of Minnesota; Aaron Sojourner, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research; Mark A. Sander, Hennepin County.
This study and others like it can help policymakers consider the costs and benefits of school-based mental health services and other models for improving children’s mental health.
$189,751
Awarded on: 05/21/2020
Timeframe: 2020-2022
Grant number: 77588
Location: Minneapolis, MN
University of Minnesota School of Public Health Minneapolis, MN 55455
http://www.sph.umn.edu/School-based mental health services (SBMH) may increase students’ access to care, which could yield benefits for mental health status and human capital-related outcomes. This paper uses a difference-in-differences design with 19 years of survey and administrative data to estimate the impacts of SBMH on a range of K-12 student outcomes. SBMH increases average outpatient mental health service use and reduces self-reported suicide attempts. There is weaker evidence that SBMH reduces suspensions and juvenile justice involvement, and no evidence that SBMH affects average attendance, standardized test scores, or self-reported substance use.
J of Human Resources, 1 Jul 2025, 1222-12703R2; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.1222-12703R2
This study and report was conducted and created by the following people.
