The insights offered in Advancing Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems: Guidance From the Field are designed to promote positive school climate and safety, strengthen social and emotional learning, and foster mental health and general well-being, while reducing the prevalence and severity of mental illness. The report also conveys the urgent need to act now to ensure that integrating comprehensive school mental health systems into all U.S. schools becomes standard practice.

A partnership of national school mental health leaders and organizations — including the Bainum Family Foundation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at George Washington University, Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, National Association of State Directors of Special Education, National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) and School-Based Health Alliance — is excited to release this rich resource to the public. We hope it will drive wide-scale adoption of comprehensive school mental health supports in schools across the United States. We hope it will drive wide-scale adoption of comprehensive school mental health supports in schools across the United States. We invite you and your organization to share the guidance broadly.