Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) announced that Nevada State College will receive $67,131 as part of the Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Program. This program provides competitive grants to support partnerships between institutions of higher education and local schools to train school counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other mental health professionals to provide school-based mental health services, especially to low-income students in public elementary and secondary schools. Senator Cortez Masto led the effort to include these funds in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that was signed into law this year. This grant will help address the critical shortage of mental health professionals in Nevada schools.
“I fought to secure funding to increase the number of mental health professionals in schools, and this innovative partnership will help students across Nevada. Our kids deserve every resource possible to keep them healthy and safe, and I’ll keep working to deliver just that.”
Senators Cortez Masto has been a leader in the Senate on mental health issues. Her bipartisan bills to combat the crisis of law enforcement suicide and provide mental health resources to police officers were both signed into law. She successfully fought to include $1 billion to support mental health services in schools in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that passed Congress this summer. She also secured $950,000 in the FY22 government spending bill to help Clark County School District better support students recovering from substance use disorder and mental health struggles and the recently passed FY 23 omnibus bill includes $1,337,000 for a Nevada State College training facility for students who are preparing to become school psychologists.
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