In a student survey last fall, 46% of Notus junior high school and high school students listed mental health as a concern.
District Superintendent Jen Wright thought she had found a partial solution. She wanted to use $60,000 in federal grants to hire a behavioral health coordinator for preschool through 12th grade.
But last week, legislators tabled the program, leaving Notus and nine other rural schools shut out on funding.
“I was really thinking that we were going to get it,” Wright said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s just very disappointing.”
Until last week, the Department of Health and Welfare was pursuing a $1.2 million behavioral health hub program — designed to offer optional in-person or telehealth services to students and families. The money was going to come from a fraction of Idaho’s $186 million federal rural healthcare transformation grant.
The Legislature’s Rural Health Transformation Committee abruptly put the behavioral health hub proposal on hold Friday — shifting the $1.2 million out of the program. Committee members noted that the Legislature had rejected a similar proposal in 2024.
Before Friday’s vote, nine districts had applied for behavioral health grants: Aberdeen, American Falls, Cascade, Castleford, Garden Valley, Marsing, Notus, Snake River and Wilder. Heritage Academy Public Charter in Jerome also applied.
All the applicants were rural — and some distance from the closest clinic.
In Notus’ case, the nearest mental health services are in Caldwell, a half hour drive away.
Aberdeen School District Superintendent Scott Muir was hoping to use a $110,000 grant to bridge the gap between his rural community and health services in American Falls, about 20 minutes away, and Pocatello, about 50 minutes away.
The grant would have gone toward new mental health and wellness services, additional counseling support and facilities upgrades.
“We believe these efforts would have had a meaningful impact on the overall well-being of our students and community,” Muir said in an email to EdNews Tuesday.
Friday’s committee vote came as a surprise to Wright. She said she only learned Notus had lost out on its grant through EdNews’ coverage of the hearing.
The sudden news means Notus will look for other options. A new partnership with Insight Counseling — a third party that already works with Marsing and Wilder — will provide Notus with a clinical counselor.
Without a $100,000 federal grant, American Falls will look at other ways to serve students and families in need, Superintendent Randy Jensen said Wednesday.
“I also hope the state continues looking at more upstream approaches to student mental health and behavioral needs,” Jensen said. “If we can provide stronger support to children and families when students are younger, we may be able to prevent some of the more significant challenges that require intervention later. Prevention should be an important part of this conversation.”
Friday’s committee vote didn’t kill the behavioral health hub proposal outright.
It leaves the door open for the Legislature to reconsider the idea in 2027, and perhaps reverse its position from 2024. And if that happens, Health and Welfare could fund the behavioral health hubs later in the five-year federal grant period. (Idaho’s future payments are yet to be determined; grants could increase or decrease from this year’s $186 million, or remain essentially the same.)
Wright says she’s already planning to contact the legislators who put the behavioral health program on hold.
“I’ve got to keep advocating for Notus students and families,” she said.
