Schumer Announces Over $329,000 In Federal Funds For The Rochester City School District

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced that a $329,571 grant was awarded to the Rochester City School District (RCSD), in Monroe County by the U.S. Department of Educations (DOE) Grants to Improve the Mental Health of Children program. Federal dollars will be used to provide access to highquality mental health care within the school system.

"This is great new for families in the Rochester area," Schumer said. "It is essential that our children receive the proper mental health care and attention that they need. This program will provide schools with the resources they need to offer the best services available, benefiting our children and the community as a whole.

Federal dollars will be used by RCSD, County Mental Health and County Probation in a partnership to assist in the integration of three efforts that are currently underway in Rochester to address mental health care. The first is the County Mental Healths three year ACCESS planning initiative aimed at improving access to mental health services for children with significant emotional disturbance and their families. The second is the Districts creation of operational procedures and protocols to guide the management of all Student & Family Support Centers. The third is the United Way of Greater Rochesters Strategic Directions for Community Investment in 2006 2012 , which includes an expansion and enhancement of schoolbased Student & Family Support Centers. This project will improve youth and family access to needed mental health services through 1) parent involvement and outreach 2) professional development for school staff and agencies working in Student & Family Support Centers 3) technical assistance and networking support as the education, mental health, and law enforcement systems test new strategies for integrating efforts and 4) improved use of technology in data collection, evaluation of services, and reporting out to the community.

The Grants to Improve the Mental Health of Children program provides federal funding to state or local educational agencies or Indian tribes to increase student access to highquality mental health care by developing innovative approaches that link school systems with the local mental health system. Entities receiving grants under this program will enhance, improve or develop collaborative efforts between schoolbased service systems and mental health service systems to provide, enhance, or improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services to students; enhance the availability of crisis intervention services; provide training for school and mental health professionals; provide consultation to school systems, mental health agencies, and families participating in the program; and provide linguistically appropriate and culturally competent services.