HSE board member opposes $5.7M in federal mental health funds
FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — At least one Hamilton Southeastern School Board member has publicly voiced reservations about a multimillion-dollar federal grant to bolster mental health programs and expand student access to mental health services.
The $5.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is the largest competitive grant the school district has ever received.
The school board agenda shows a planned discussion about the mental health grant at Wednesday’s 7 p.m. school board meeting. The school board meeting will be at the board room of Hamilton Southeastern Schools Central Office, 13485 Cumberland Road.
These meetings are livestreamed, but parents were being encouraged to attend the meeting.
School leaders said the grant could be used over the next five years to hire more school counselors for secondary school students, more school social workers to help elementary-aged students, and extra school psychologists to benefit the entire district.
Brooke Lawson, the mental health and school counseling coordinator for HSE Schools, led the application process. In an interview with News 8, Lawson expressed that the school district has seen a gap between student needs and available mental health services.
Lawson said, “We are the fourth largest district in the state of Indiana and our schools are not as staffed as some of the other larger districts across the state, so I think we were able to really show that we had a need and that we have those large caseloads.”