St. Lucie Public Schools used its Sept. 23 workshop to brief the board and the public on school‑based mental‑health services, staff counts, training and community partnerships the district says help identify and support students and employees in need.

Heather Rowland, executive director of student services, and Esther Rivera, director of student services, described a multi‑tiered system of supports. Rivera told the board the district employs 106 certified school counselors, 20 school social workers, 11 school‑based mental‑health counselors and 17 school psychologists; those staff provide universal prevention, small‑group and individual clinical interventions at school sites. Rivera said the district used referendum funding to expand its team.

“Open dialogue about mental health is essential to reducing stigma,” Rivera said, introducing short video testimonials from students, teachers and caregivers about counseling in schools.

Dr. Michelle Gillard, the district’s coordinator of mental health and psychological services, described the tiered model: tier 1 universal work (mental‑health awareness, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, Kids at Hope), tier 2 small‑group counseling and mentoring, and tier 3 intensive one‑to‑one interventions that include suicide risk assessment. Gillard said the district has delivered suicide‑prevention instruction through the Signs of Suicide (SOS) curriculum in ninth grade since 2016 and that the district has taught Youth Mental Health First Aid since 2015. “We have been teaching mental health first aid here in St. Lucie public schools since 02/2015,” Gillard said; she said the district had already surpassed the Department of Education’s annual training goal and was at about 83 percent trained to date.

Gillard and Rivera described how schools follow up on SOS exit tickets and how mental‑health staff respond within 24 hours when a student indicates a need. For clinical risk assessment the district uses the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale and follows state and DOE guidance; the transcript shows staff also coordinate with a mobile response team and community partners when more intensive or outside care is needed.

Rivera provided service counts for the previous school year: 1,331 students received school‑based counseling, 966 participated in ongoing individual counseling and 430 participated in group counseling; 239 students were referred to community mental‑health providers under the district’s mental‑health collaborative. Rivera said the district provides funding to pay for counseling services for students who lack insurance and that referrals to community agencies are made with parental permission.

Dr. Helen Wilde described employee supports and a district partnership to grow the counselor workforce. She said the district partnered with Florida Atlantic University on a federal mental‑health grant (the SWELL program) to encourage staff to become certified school counselors; the program produced about 70 percent of the district’s current school counselors, Wilde said. Wilde also summarized employee assistance resources available to staff and their dependents under the district’s “Resources for Living” program, including 24/7 telephonic access, six face‑to‑face counseling sessions per issue per year through a licensed network, legal and financial consulting and a MeQuilibrium wellness app. Wilde said the typical counseling engagement through that program averages about 3.9 sessions and that the face‑to‑face option averaged about 4.5 sessions in the most recent report.

Board members asked how families request school‑based counseling (school counselors are the first point of contact) and whether training, parental consent and documentation processes were in place for referrals; staff answered that parents are asked for consent for school counseling and that staff document and follow DOE reporting and Baker Act procedures when required. Board members also requested comparative data on outcomes over a longer timeframe; staff agreed to provide historical comparisons.

No board action was taken; the meeting segment was informational and focused on services, training and community partnerships.