Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP): A Promising Solution for North Carolina’s Youth Mental Health Crisis

Abstract

North Carolina is facing a youth mental health crisis and there is an urgent need for alternative solutions. School-based models of delivering mental health services are associated with higher utilization and higher satisfaction compared to community-based services. Specialized Instructional Support Personnel can identify and address unmet needs and reduce barriers in access to care.

Introduction

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association have declared a national emergency in adolescent mental health,¹ while the US Surgeon General has made youth mental health a key prior­ity.² Drivers of mental health needs among youth are mul­tifactorial. Mental health is closely linked to physical health³ and is also influenced by social determinants of health, such as poverty, racism, and geography,² all of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.⁴

Unmet physical, mental, and social health needs influence a child’s ability to thrive academically. In school settings, these may manifest as behavioral disruption or disengage­ment leading to violence, suspensions, and drop-outs.⁵ Other students may suffer silently, without demonstrating overt symptoms that impact their educational performance.⁶ These unmet needs are also key drivers of school absen­teeism.⁷

North Carolina’s Youth Mental Health Crisis

In North Carolina, 1 in 5 adolescents has seriously consid­ered attempting suicide, 1 in 10 has made a suicide attempt,⁸ and more than 1 in 10 children aged 3–17 has a diagnosis of anxiety or depression.⁹ The 2023 North Carolina Child Health Report Card gave the state an ‘F’ for child mental health, citing that these trends are worsening.¹⁰ North Carolina’s health and education systems are failing to meet the increased mental health needs of children. In this state, only 28% of children with a diagnosed mental or behavioral need receive care from a specialized mental health care provider.¹¹ The state ranks 46th nationally in providing appropriate in-school supports and accommodations for children with mental health needs.⁹

North Carolina faces a critical shortage of mental health providers: the state has only 32% of the recommended number of child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAPs) for the population and they are concentrated in urban counties.¹² Of the 100 counties in North Carolina, 61 have no CAPs at all.¹² This results in long travel distances and waitlists to see a mental health provider, particularly in rural settings.¹³ Pediatric primary care providers may be able to pre­scribe medications and support families with behavioral, social, and educational difficulties. However, the majority of pediatricians report feeling inadequately trained to provide the care that a mental health specialist can provide.¹⁴ Additionally, there is a shortage of providers who can do therapy, so youth are often waiting months to establish care with a therapist.¹⁵ Barriers to mental health care include high costs and low reimbursement rates.¹⁴ These barri­ers, closely intertwined with social determinants of health, disproportionately impact low-income, minority, and rural communities as well as children with special health care needs.¹⁴

A School-based Solution to Address Barriers in Access to Mental Health

A recent systematic review of policy levers to promote access and utilization of children’s mental health services demonstrated that school-based models of delivering men­tal health services are associated with higher utilization and higher satisfaction compared to community-based services.¹⁶ These models also improve access to mental health services in rural settings, decreasing barriers such as trans­portation and time off from work for caregivers.^13,14

Specialized Instructional Support Personnel

An integrated, school-based care model is a promis­ing solution for improving health and education outcomes among North Carolina’s youth. This can take the shape of a multidisciplinary team consisting of school counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses who work collab­oratively to deliver a range of services that address individ­ual and population health needs while reducing barriers in access to care.

SISP include four main types of school-based provider roles, each making a unique contribution to student health:

Counselors develop, implement, and evaluate school-wide programming aimed to improve school climate and connectedness. They provide individual and group coun­seling, facilitate conflict resolution, help students develop social skills, and offer college and career guidance.

Social workers work closely with families, teachers, and the community to facilitate access to resources address­ing needs that may be affecting students’ academic perfor­mance, such as housing and nutrition. Some social workers are qualified to diagnose mental health conditions and pro­vide therapeutic interventions.

Psychologists primarily focus on students’ mental health and educational achievement. In addition to targeted individ­ual behavioral health services, they conduct assessments to identify students with learning difficulties and unique behav­ioral needs, and they work closely with the student, family, and teachers to develop individualized plans for instructional and behavioral support in the classroom. They also help to develop school behavioral health practices and systemic response protocols, such as risk and threat assessments.

Nurses identify and address acute health needs, manage chronic health conditions, provide health education, and develop school health policies to promote healthy school environments.

In addition to student-facing services, SISP provide in-service training for teachers and staff, offer parent educa­tion, and facilitate community collaboration efforts.¹⁴ Overlapping roles of SISP include individual or group coun­seling for students, fostering positive school climate, behav­ioral intervention strategies, performing suicide and threat assessments, and crisis prevention services.¹⁷

Evidence for SISP Effectiveness

There is a growing body of evidence that SISP are a cost-effective way to improve both health-related and educa­tional outcomes at the individual and population level. In addition to the literature, North Carolina school personnel verbalized the value of SISP to the authors, with quotes in Table 1.

Table 1. Quotes From North Carolina School Personnel About Specialized Instructional Support Personnel.

Note. Quotes illustrating the value of SISP, elicited from SISP in North Carolina by the authors, as well as quotes from school Principals in North Carolina from an author’s prior qualitative work. (Scott, D. [2017]. A Mixed Methods Study of North Carolina Principals’ Perceptions of the Roles of School Social Workers. https://doi.org/10.17615/88xt-bz87.)

Improved Physical and Mental Health Outcomes

School nurses are well-positioned to provide both indi­vidual and population health services and reduce barriers in access to health care. They play a critical role in identifying, addressing, and coordinating the health care needs of chil­dren through health education, policies to promote health and safety, management and monitoring of chronic health conditions, evaluation and treatment of non-severe acute conditions, and identification and referral of more serious health concerns to higher levels of care.¹⁸ School-based health providers increase return-to-class rates compared to unlicensed personnel who are more likely to unnecessarily send children home or to an acute-care facility, resulting in loss of instructional time and unnecessary health care spending.^18,19

School psychologists and clinical social workers provide early identification and management of mental health needs, which can prevent more costly and intensive interventions, such as psychiatric hospitalization.²⁰ Management of mental health conditions also helps improve physical health outcomes.²¹ School-based mental health specialists are shown to decrease adolescent cocaine use by 45.8%, mari­juana use by 11.5%, tobacco use by 10.7%, and binge drink­ing by 8%.²² In addition, cost-effectiveness studies have shown that school-based mental health and substance use prevention programs can save $11 to $18 per dollar that is invested.^22,23

Improved Educational Outcomes

With expertise in mental health, behavior management, and social dynamics, school social workers, counselors, and psychologists are equipped to promote positive school cli­mate and social-emotional learning (SEL), which improves students’ sense of community and belonging.²⁴ Positive school climate is associated with prevention of interper­sonal conflict by 80% and health benefits lasting into adult­hood.²⁵ These providers are also trained to identify and de-escalate interpersonal conflict through trauma-informed interventions.²⁶ These methods are more effective than punitive and exclusionary discipline practices, which are associated with criminalization of child behavior and increased rates of youth incarceration and juvenile justice system involvement.²⁷

The presence of SISP improves the school environment and promotes a number of positive educational outcomes. Policies that improve ratios of school counselors to students have been shown to decrease school physical aggression and absenteeism while increasing instructional time and improving academic performance.^28,29 School counsel­ors have been shown to decrease suspensions by 22% and increase college attendance by 8% among students with below-average test scores.^28,29 A study that measured the impact of adding a counselor to a school found that this is twice as effective as hiring an additional teacher to improve academic achievement.²⁶ School psychologists who work in environments with recommended staff-to-student ratios have been shown to improve student focus and motivation for learning, decrease drop-out rates and absenteeism, and improve school safety.³⁰ Similarly, school social workers are associated with improved attendance and three-times-higher graduation rates.³¹ Teachers recognize the value of SISP: according to a survey, teachers valued having access to more school counselors and nurses over a 10% pay raise or a reduction in class size.³²

Policies to Support SISP and Student Health

Invest in Development, Recruitment, and Retention of SISP

North Carolina currently ranks 47th in the nation in total dollars of spending per student and 50th in funding effort (percent of GDP toward education).³³ As North Carolina school districts approach the end of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds via the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in 2024, North Carolina schools will lose more than 10% of their current below-adequate funding.³⁴

Moreover, North Carolina schools are significantly under­staffed, with lower-than-recommended ratios of each SISP provider type (Figure 1).³⁵ School social workers and psychologists are in particularly low supply, with only about 25% of the recommended number to serve the needs of North Carolina students (unpublished data, Department of Public Instruction Business Office, 2023).

Figure 1. Current SISP-to-Student Ratios in North Carolina Compared to Recommended Ratios.

Note. Ratios of Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP) in North Carolina compared to minimum recommended ratios.

Sources. [³⁵; unpublished data, Department of Public Instruction Business Office, 2023

Investments in SISP that have been endorsed by the North Carolina State Board of Education, North Carolina State Superintendent, North Carolina Center for Safer Schools, North Carolina Parent Teacher Association (NCPTA), and the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force include: increased funding for education, including adequate budget allocation to hire SISP at recommended ratios; development of training programs for each SISP provider type to increase the workforce; and competitive salaries to improve recruit­ment and retention of SISP.^5,36,37

The North Carolina State Board of Education has requested $100 million in the 2023–2025 biennial budget for 1000 more school-based nurses and social workers, $5 million for a school psychologist internship program, and $10 million to provider master’s level pay for social work­ers.³⁸ This would be a tremendous start to developing sustainable SISP programs to support the health and social needs of children across the state.

Medicaid Reimbursement for School-based Services Provided by SISP

While many school-based services provided by SISP are eligible for Medicaid reimbursement, not all are. Expanding Medicaid eligibility for school-based services to include psy­chotherapy for crisis and substance use cessation counsel­ing and screening for mental health conditions would help provide federal funding for the work that SISP are already performing, currently without reimbursement.

Many schools do not have the technical bandwidth to handle the administrative burden associated with Medicaid reimbursement. As a result, claims for many eligible services that SISP provide are not submitted to Medicaid for reim­bursement, and the cost for these services falls on the school budget. Technical assistance to schools would greatly facili­tate Medicaid reimbursement claims and provide federal funding outside of the school budget for services provided by SISP. To that end, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance in 2023 to significantly expand access to health and behavioral services in schools by reducing administrative burden associated with Medicaid reimbursement.³⁹ Facilitating Medicaid reimbursement in these ways has been demonstrated to provide a signifi­cant influx of federal funding for services provided by SISP: after passing legislation to facilitate school-based Medicaid reimbursement, the state of Michigan doubled the amount of school behavioral health providers and anticipates an increase of $14 million in federal funding from school psy­chologists alone.⁴⁰

Conclusion

Given the many barriers that North Carolina children face in accessing mental health treatment, including severe shortages in child and adolescent psychiatrists, there is an urgent need to look toward alternative solutions. SISP pro­vide an integrated, school-based approach to identifying and addressing unmet health and social needs and reduce barriers in access to care, particularly in rural settings. North Carolina could revolutionize the way we address the men­tal health needs of our children and foster a healthier, more resilient future generation of North Carolinians prioritizing funding and policy measures to ensure sustainable support for these essential professionals.