HCAI details $16 million Behavioral Health Scholarship Program: key deadlines, eligibility and service requirements

Health Care Access and Information’s Office of Health Workforce Development on a statewide webinar laid out eligibility, award amounts and application timing for the Behavioral Health Scholarship Program (BHSP), which has $16,000,000 available for the 2025–26 academic year.

"The Behavioral Health Scholarship Program, BHSP, aims to increase the number of trained behavioral health professionals, providing direct care to underserved communities," said Wahida Nawab, grama section chief for Health Workforce Development, HCAI.

The program is intended to expand California’s behavioral health workforce to serve children and youth. HCAI said individual awards will be up to $35,000 for undergraduate students and up to $25,000 for certificate and graduate students; awards will not exceed an applicant’s one‑year cost of attendance.

Why it matters: webinar presenters emphasized that California faces a shortfall of behavioral health providers for children and youth, and BHSP ties funding to a service obligation intended to place clinicians in underserved settings. The program is funded through the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative and HCAI state funding.

Key dates and amounts HCAI staff listed the following timetable for the 2025–26 cycle: the online application opened Jan. 2; the application deadline is Feb. 13 at 3:00…