Maryland Consortium funds expand school-based behavioral services; local projects include therapists, mediation and telehealth pilots

Molly Wanamaker, supervisor of student services for Calvert County Public Schools, briefed the committee on the Maryland Consortium, a state program funded through the Blueprint for Maryland's Future that aims to expand access to comprehensive behavioral services in schools. Wanamaker said the $111 million figure is the statewide allocation and noted Calvert County had seven grantees for the 2024'25 school year.

Wanamaker listed local grantees and programs: the health department assigned school-based mental-health therapists (with a few elementary schools currently without a therapist); a medication-management pilot using a nurse practitioner in three schools; Community Mediation Center restorative-practice offerings; East John Youth Center life-skills groups and transportation for after-school activities; Boys and Girls Club after-school programs in the north county; Pathways therapy at Patuxent High School; UnioHealth's Prosper app with roughly 230 student downloads; Barstow Acres children's social-skills groups; and virtual-therapy resources such as Charlie Health (a fee- or insurance-based option).

"We have just entered into an additional agreement with Behavioral Health to also provide some additional meetings with the nurse practitioner from the health department for families," Wanamaker said, describing a pilot for medication management in three schools. Committee members asked whether the consortium projects operate as a single coordinated system. Wanamaker said the state is planning a HUB grant that, if awarded locally to the Local Behavioral Health Authority, would provide oversight and reduce duplication, but that most projects currently function as independent proposals aligned to shared outcome measures.