Bill > S1811

This bill, the Increasing Access to Mental Health in Schools Act, aims to increase the recruitment and retention of school-based mental health services providers, such as school counselors, social workers, and psychologists, at low-income local educational agencies. The key provisions of the bill include: - Establishing a grant program to fund partnerships between low-income local educational agencies and eligible graduate institutions to train, place, and retain school-based mental health services providers in these underserved schools. - Allowing grant funds to be used for administrative costs, hiring and salaries of new providers, increasing the provider-to-student ratios, recruiting underrepresented graduate students, and developing relevant coursework. - Requiring annual reporting on the progress and outcomes of the grant program. - Authorizing $200 million per year for the grant program and student loan forgiveness for individuals employed as school-based mental health services providers at low-income local educational agencies for 5 or more consecutive years. - Directing the Secretary of Education to conduct a study to identify a formula for designating regions with shortages of school-based mental health services providers for future program implementation.