West Salem outlines expansion of school mental-health services; social worker reports 810 documented contacts

Heidi, a district student-services presenter, told the board the district is embedding comprehensive school mental-health supports into its strategic plan to improve classroom climate and student outcomes. “We want people, staff, and students to want to be here and to want to do well. And to do that, they've got to have good mental health or know how to seek help when their mental health is not so well,” she said.

Why it matters: Heidi presented district Youth Risk Behavior Survey results and program goals. She said self-reported significant anxiety at the high school fell from 52% in 2020 to 46% in 2023, prolonged disruptive sadness (a proxy for depressive symptoms) held near 27%–28%, and the share of students who seriously considered suicide declined from 18% to 14% over the same period. Heidi described data challenges from inconsistent reporting tools across buildings and said the district is piloting screening tools (SABERS) and considering a unified data warehouse (NextPath) so interventions and discipline data are tracked consistently.

Tatiana Wolf, the district's newly hired school social worker, described operational steps taken in her first year: staff trainings on McKinney-Vento and mandated reporting, a middle-school girls' leadership group called GLOW, and placement of on-site therapists. “As you can see, I had 810 submissions. This was for about 101 students or families,” Tatiana said, summarizing the caseload and the mix of contacts. She reported roughly half of her contacts were one-on-one with students, about 53% involved phone outreach, and that many contacts work through attendance and family-engagement issues.

Staffing, programs and partnerships: Heidi and Tatiana said the district now has additional student-support capacity (including a school social worker, counselors and health staff) and is building partnerships with community providers, university programs and county supports (Great Rivers Health community health workers, Ho-Chunk youth services, Better Together and local university programs). The presenters noted existing funding for much of the work came from a two-year 'School-Based Mental Health' grant, a separate 'Get Kids Ahead' grant that recently expired, and federal support that covers the school social worker position for two years through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Data and next steps: Tatiana and Heidi said the district will continue the SABERS pilot screening and review a second administration in spring to decide whether to adopt a screening tool districtwide; they will also evaluate NextPath for standardized behavioral and academic data entry. Tatiana said the district is recruiting licensed therapists to work on-site to reduce barriers families face in accessing care and will pursue additional grants (including a women's grant mentioned as a target) to support group programming and expanded services.

Board response and follow-up: A board member thanked staff for quantifying the work; administrators said they will bring screening results and recommendations to future meetings. The presenters requested continued support for staffing, data alignment across buildings, and additional community partnerships as the district refines its school mental-health framework.

What's next: The district will analyze the spring screening data, continue onboarding on-site therapists pending state facility reviews, evaluate NextPath and return with recommended policy or staffing requests as needed.