The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program provides competitive grants to support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers for employment in schools and local educational agencies (LEAs). The goal of this program is to expand the pipeline of high-quality, trained providers to address the shortages of mental health service professionals, specifically school psychologists, in schools served by high need LEAs.
For FY 2025, the program has three absolute priorities and one competitive preference priority. The Secretary intends to create two funding slates for MHSP applications, one slate for applications that meet Absolute Priorities 1 and 3 and a second slate for applications that meet Absolute Priority 2 and 3.
Absolute Priority 1—Enhance SEA efforts to address shortages of school psychologists in high-need LEAs.
To meet this priority, an SEA applicant must propose a project designed to train and place school psychology graduate candidates into high-need LEAs for the purpose of fulfilling requirements necessary to complete a degree and obtain a license or certification as a credentialed school psychologist.
Absolute Priority 2—Expand the capacity of high-need LEAs to address shortages of school psychologists.
To meet this priority, the applicant must propose a project designed to train and place school psychology graduate candidates into high-need LEAs for the purpose of fulfilling requirements necessary to complete a degree and obtain a license or certification as a credentialed school psychologist.
Absolute Priority 3—Increase the number of credentialed school psychologists available to deliver early intervention mental health services and intensive mental health services in high-need LEAs.
To meet this priority, applicants must propose to increase the number of credentialed school psychologists available to engage in:
- Providing intensive mental health services and supports to individual students most in need of those services,
- Providing early intervention mental health services to address acute concerns and determine if intensive mental health services are needed.
Competitive Preference Priority 1- Rural Applicants
Under this priority, applicants must propose to serve a community that is served by one or more LEAs—
- With a National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) locale code of 32, 33, 41, 42, or 43; or
- With a NCES locale code of 41, 42, or 43.