Advocates and school leaders press DBH to fix school‑based behavioral health funding and staffing

Chair Christina Henderson convened testimony Feb. 3 as part of a two‑part performance oversight review of the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH). Parents, educators, charter and district school leaders and community‑based providers told the Committee on Health the city’s school‑based behavioral health expansion is producing visible benefits where clinicians are in place, but that staffing and payment problems are limiting access.

School leaders and advocates said the DBH expansion program — which funds community‑based organizations (CBOs) to place clinicians in public and public charter schools — has increased services in many buildings but depends on a funding model that requires CBOs to bill Medicaid or other payers for a portion of costs. That blended model is leaving some providers unable to cover full costs. ‘‘CBOs are choosing to leave the program or they are reducing the number of schools they're in,’’ said Caroline…