UCLA Center for Mental Health

AB2569 (Yee) New Directions Legislation

AB2569 Fact Sheet (PDF)

School systems are not responsible for meeting every need of their students. But, when the need directly affects learning, the school must meet the challenge. Despite decades of discussion about ensuring all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school, reformers have paid little attention to rethinking the way schools provide student supports. Until now! A national initiative for New Directions for Student Support is underway. The goal is to bring student support into the 21st century by revolutionizing what schools do to address barriers tolearning and teaching.

It’s an Imperative for

• any school designated as low performing
• closing the achievement gap
• making schools safe

Meeting the Challenges Requires Rethinking ALL Support Programs, Resources, and Personnel

Most people hear the term student support and think mainly about pupil service personnel (e.g., school psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses) and the special services such staff provide. But, schools need and have many more resources they use to meet the challenge of ensuring all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school.

Besides traditional support staff, learning support is provided by compensatory education personnel (e.g., Title I staff), resource teachers who focus on prereferral interventions, and personnel who provide a variety of school-wide programs (e.g., after school, safe and drug free school programs). New Directions stem from rethinking how all these resources are used.

After holding a national summit and three regional summits, it is clear that the next steps are to organize at the state level. To date, four states have already held statewide summits and are in the process of pursuing New Directions for Student Support. And, so far, over 30 organizations have signed on as initiative co-sponsors.

Interested in exploring any of this further?
Go to the homepage of the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu) and click on the green button labeled "Summits for New Directions."

Or contact:
Howard Adelman or Linda Taylor, Co-Directors, Center for Mental Health in Schools, Box 951563, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095- 1563 (866) 846-4843 – toll free; Fax: (310) 206-8716; email: smhp@ucla.edu

• American School Counselors Association
• American School Health Association
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• California Association of School Psychologists
• California Center for Community School Partnerships
• California Department of Education
• Center for Cooperative Research and Extension Services for Schools
• Center for Prevention of Youth Violence, Johns Hopkins University
• Center for School Mental Health Assistance at the University of Maryland at Baltimore
• Center for Social and Emotional Education
• Coalition for Cohesive Policy in Addressing Barriers to Development and Learning
• Coalition for Community Schools
• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
• Education Development Center
• Indiana Department of Education
• Johns Hopkins University Graduate Division of Education
• Minnesota Department of Education
• National Alliance of Pupil Service Organizations
• National Association of Pupil Services Administrators
• National Association of School Nurses
• National Association of School Psychologists
• National Association of Secondary School Principals
• National Association of Social Workers
• National Association of State Boards of Education
• National Middle Schools Association
• National Center for Community Education
• National Middle School Association
• Policy Leadership Coalition of Mental Health in Schools
• Region VII Comprehensive Center
• School Social Work Association of America
• Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

*The Center is co-directed by Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor and operates under the auspices of the School Mental Health Project, Dept. of Psychology, UCLA.

Support comes in part from the Office of Adolescent Health, Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Title V, Social Security Act), Health Resources and Services Administration (Project #U93 MC 00175), with co-funding from the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Both are agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.