State Requests Vendors to Develop Mental-health Framework for Students

BOSTON — The Healey-Driscoll administration recently announced that the Executive Office of Education (EOE) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education have opened a request to solicit vendors to develop a mental-health framework for early-education through higher-education students across Massachusetts.

This new framework will inform a statewide strategy for mental- and behavioral-health supports through the public education and licensed childcare system in Massachusetts and support coordination between early education and care programs, schools, students, families, and the state’s systems of community-based services and providers.

“We have a mental-health crisis that was only made worse by the pandemic, particularly for young people,” Gov. Maura Healey said. ”Our administration is committed to ensuring that Massachusetts students have the behavioral healthcare they need to balance their mental health and education. I look forward to seeing how this framework will deepen our current efforts and provide a strategy to support students at every level of education.”

The state’s FY 2024 budget included $5 million for this framework. In collaboration with health and human service agencies and other key stakeholders, EOE and its agencies aim to use this framework to identify, guide, and align collective efforts to better understand and address mental and behavioral wellness needs among students from infants and toddlers through adult learners, using common language, strategies, and metrics.

The framework builds on the administration’s existing efforts to support student mental health, including investing $13 million in the Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition (BRYT) program, an in-school program supporting students who have fallen behind academically due to challenges with their mental health. Interested vendors should click here.