Bethel School District Awarded $262K Grant For Mental Health Workers

BETHEL, CT — The Bethel School District is one of 20 across the state being awarded $5 million in funding to be used for hiring and maintaining school mental health workers during the 2023, 2024, and 2025 school years.

The total award to Bethel Schools will be $261,840, parsed out as $96,978 in both fiscal year 2023 and 2024, and $67,884 in FY 2025.

The School Mental Health Workers Grant, being administered by the Connecticut State Department of Education, is funded by money the state received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, which was approved by Congress in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the first of three rounds of grants aimed at increasing the number of mental health workers in schools that are being administered by the state using ARPA funding. A second round – the School Mental Health Specialists Grant – will soon provide grants totaling $15 million. A third grant program will provide $8 million to summer camps and school-based summer programming for mental health support.

Awards for each district under this first round range between $101,973 and $324,000. Priority was given to districts with a high ratio of students to school mental health workers and a high rate of student use of school mental health services, according to a news release from Gov. Ned Lamont's Office.

U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, representing Bethel as part of the 5th District, said, "As students continue to recover from the most traumatizing interruption to their education, they need strong, reliable, and accessible support services. I am grateful Governor Lamont and state leaders are using American Rescue Plan funding to serve students directly. Bringing more mental health workers into schools is vital for children to heal from the pandemic and provide them with a safe learning environment."