Plans for a $100,000 mental health grant the Washington Community School District received last month were discussed at the most recent school board meeting.

Curriculum Director Veta Thode informed the board that this grant will help support the $542,000 therapeutic classroom incentive grant they received earlier this spring. The grant is being used for their district-wide “Navigating Emotions and Stress Through Teaching”, or NESTT Center. Thode mentioned that last year the district had 95 students that received mental health services through their partnership with Grace C. Mae Advocate Center with more on a waiting list, and the NESTT Center is an expansion to serve all students through a three-tiered system with designated teachers in each of the school buildings. Thode says she and other staff have several ideas of how to use the additional $100,000 including for a risk assessor tool, “And we’re expanding our mental health services to provide support for the families and caretakers like babysitters and so forth for those students that are getting the mental health supports and that would be prescribed by the therapist. So if the therapist says the family needs to know how to work with the student at home to help them to be more successful we have the funds now to help with that which is awesome.”

Thode says they will also be creating “calm down rooms” and sensory paths for each school building, which she said the school counselors are very excited for. The therapeutic classroom grant also paid for a new staff member, Beth Dehogues who was hired as a School Family Liaison to address mental health needs and support student success across the district.