How Sheboygan Area School District will use a $400K grant to extend mental health and suicide prevention services to more students

SHEBOYGAN — Sheboygan Area School District will hire a part-time therapist and increase mental health service opportunities for students next fall after being awarded a $400,000 grant.

The SASD proposal for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: Stronger Communities Grant, from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, prioritizes student emotional well-being and supporting students through collaboration with community partners, according to a news release about the awarded grant.

“While all students will benefit from universal approaches featured by our project, it was designed to increase equitable access to services, resources and supports for our most under-resourced students, including those living with the stressors of poverty, household dysregulation and trauma, students experiencing poor mental health, and the roughly 300 students having significant difficulty regulating emotions and behaviors,” said Jason Ledermann, director of special education and pupil services, in the release.

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About 200 SASD students currently utilize the Providing Access To Healing program. PATH is an in-school mental health therapy partnership with United Way of Sheboygan County.

Currently, there are 125 students on the program’s waiting list, according to the release.

The grant will go toward expanding the PATH program to help families support students and develop emotional strength through the hiring of a part-time therapist.

Partnering with The Production Farm is another goal for the grant money. The Production Farm aligns student interest and nontraditional therapy — like fishing, cooking and music — for mental and behavioral health care, the release said.

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Three service levels will be provided through the partnership: off-site one-on-one more intensive support, small group off-site sessions and on-site classroom-based learning and skill-building.

Lastly, implementing Sources of Strength, a sixth- through 12th-grade suicide prevention program, will be a grant priority. The program works to prevent suicide through shaping positive student culture, building resiliency and increasing student sense of belonging.

SASD will begin implementing the two-year grant in fall 2024.

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This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan schools will use grant for mental health, suicide prevention