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Two new grants will help support recruitment, training, and retention of school psychologists in two local school corporations. The grants, led by Assistant Professor Heather Ormiston, will help expand the capacity of each district to address shortages of school psychologists in Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation (RBB) in Elletsville, Indiana, and Bartholomew County School Corporation (BCSC) in Columbus, Indiana. They will also increase the number of credentialed school psychologists available to deliver early intervention mental health services and intensive mental health services with a particular focus on supporting rural schools or schools that draw from rural areas. 

Each grant will last four years in the school districts, totalling over $5 million in funding for students in the districts’ schools to get better mental health support - and for future school psychologists to receive real-world experience and training.

According to Ormiston, the grant in RBB will focus on early childhood, pre-K through second grade. RBB hopes to hire three additional full-time school psychologists over the course of the project. They will lead school-based teams to implement the locally developed multi-tiered system of support framework for school mental health plans at Edgewood Early Childhood Center and Edgewood Primary School. Additionally, five school psychology practicum students would obtain placements in the district at EECC and EPS for supervised training under the grant. BCSC will focus on elementary-level students. The proposed project will utilize a tiered framework to conceptualize school-based mental health service delivery. 

Both grants will help address the significant shortage of school psychologists across Indiana.

“Indiana is in the top quartile of states with the highest prevalence rates of youth with MH disorders (ranging from 20–27%) and the lowest mental health service access rates,” Ormiston said. “Schools are the most common access point for mental health services for youth and significantly reduce barriers such as cost, transportation, and access. Students are significantly more likely to follow through on referrals for mental health services in the school than in the community. Supporting student mental health is critical to supporting positive academic outcomes.”