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Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative: digital platforms show early reach; schools still onboarding to fee schedule
Summary
Officials described expansion of school‑based services, two statewide digital platforms (Soluna and Brightlife Kids) reporting tens of thousands of users, and continuing onboarding challenges for the CYBHI fee‑for‑service school fee schedule despite investments in district grants and technical assistance.
State and DHCS officials briefed the subcommittee on the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), outlining school investments, digital platforms and evaluation plans.
Sohail Sood of CalHHS framed CYBHI as an effort to expand prevention, resilience and access across schools, communities and health care. Deputy Director Autumn Boylan of DHCS detailed multiple school‑oriented investments, including the Student Behavioral Health Incentive Program, Social and Emotional Learning grants to county offices of education and local educational agencies, and a $400 million investment to support fee‑schedule readiness.
Boylan said the CYBHI fee schedule program is intended as a permanent, multi‑payer source of reimbursement for behavioral health services in schools and that DHCS has worked with LEAs and county offices to design onboarding processes. She reported that nine LEAs in cohort 1 had submitted 41 claims and that 20 additional LEAs had completed onboarding steps and could submit claims. DHCS said it is providing recorded trainings, live workshops, weekly office hours and one‑on‑one technical assistance to address implementation questions and reduce administrative burden.
DHCS also described two statewide digital behavioral‑health platforms launched under CYBHI: Soluna and Brightlife Kids. Boylan said the platforms together had more than 95,000 users as of February 2025 and delivered tens of thousands of coaching sessions with short wait times (Saluna average wait under five minutes; Brightlife Kids average appointment wait 1.6 days reported). DHCS reported that 70 percent of surveyed users said the platforms were their first and only source of professional mental‑health support and that the platforms reach high proportions of users who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Committee members and public commenters pressed DHCS on evaluation metrics and whether digital investments might divert resources from in‑person school services. DHCS replied that CYBHI includes a Mathematica evaluation and that digital platforms report clinical and satisfaction metrics, use validated assessment tools (for example, Brightlife Kids uses the Pediatric Symptoms Checklist), and incorporate care navigation to link users to community‑based services where appropriate. DHCS officials said combined investments for school‑based services exceed $1 billion and that digital platforms are intended to complement rather than replace in‑person care.
