The County of San Bernardino will pay the Chino Valley Unified School District and the Ontario-Montclair School District each more than $4 million and the Upland Unified School District almost $2.5 million to partially defray the cost of those districts providing mental health services to their students.
The board of supervisors on Tuesday, approved contracts with the three school districts for the provision of what is referred to as “school-aged treatment services” in their jurisdictions, in an amount not to exceed $10,568,363, for the period of August 1,
2018 through June 30, 2023. The Chino Valley Unified School District was appropriated $4,097,712. The Ontario-Montclair School District was provided $4,012,318. The Upland Unified School District is getting $2,458,333.
According to Veronica Kelley, the director of the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health, “Chino Valley Unified School District, Ontario–Montclair School District, and Upland Unified School District provide a range of behavioral health services that are tailored to meet the needs of students who are Medi-Cal eligible beneficiaries. In addition, services are provided to adolescents who are described as dually diagnosed, a designation to describe an individual in need of mental health and substance use disorder services. Chino Valley Unified School District, Ontario–Montclair School District, and Upland Unified School District provide these school-based mental health services as required under early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment programs, a federally mandated Medicaid option. The intent of the program is to extend Medi-Cal coverage to their students
to assist in the identification of each student’s physical/mental needs and to provide appropriate treatment in order to correct and/or improve their physical/mental condition.
Parental/legal guardian consent is required for children under 12 to undergo psychological counseling. Under state law, children age 12 and older may consent to their own behavioral healthcare, including substance use disorder services and mental health outpatient services. This is covered by California Family Code 6924, Family Code 6929 and Health & Safety Code 124260.
The Department of Behavioral Health anticipates that the school districts will provide services to approximately 528 students annually, at an estimated cost of $4,000 per student.
Department of Behavioral Health, as the mental health plan for the county, provides behavioral health treatment services to San Bernardino County beneficiaries through a network of service providers. Each provider has a specific responsibility. School-aged treatment services are tailored to meet the needs of children/youth who attend the school districts in order to restore or maintain functioning consistent with the requirements for learning, development, independent living, and enhanced self-sufficiency. The Department of Behavioral Health has provided school-aged treatment services through contracted services since 2015.
The recommended contracts with Chino Valley Unified School District, the Ontario-Montclair School District and the Upland Unified School District for school-aged treatment services are possible due to the ability of school districts to contribute match for funding and their ability to leverage State Department of Education funding to offer school-based mental health services to children with disabilities and to children living in foster families. While preparing the current contracts for a July 1, 2018 start date, the school districts informed the Department of Behavioral Health that it would be necessary to obtain their respective school board approval prior to entering into contracts with the county. In the past, this was not a requirement. Therefore, the Department of Behavioral Health entered into short-term school-aged program contracts for the period of July 1, 2018 through July 31, 2018 and is requesting board of supervisors’ approved contracts effective August 1, 2018 through June 30, 2023 to avoid an interruption in school-aged treatment services.”