School and early education and care personnel are often among the first to identify children and youth with unmet behavioral health needs. This section contains resources tailored to educators (including early childhood, elementary, and secondary) on CBHI services. It also has other resources to support collaboration between educators and behavioral health providers.
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: A Resource Guide for Early Childhood Professionals
This resource includes basic information on infant and early childhood mental health and services and supports for families with young children, as well as resources to benefit early education and care programs.
Additional Resources
MassHealth Behavioral Health Services for Children and Youth: A Guide for School Personnel
This resource contains practical information on MassHealth home- and community-based behavioral services for children and youth younger than 21. It also provides guidance on how school personnel can help connect students and their families with services as well as collaborate with external behavioral health providers.
Additional Resources
Open PDF file, 5.3 MB,
School Personnel Resource Guide
(English, PDF 5.3 MB)
Open DOC file, 11.78 MB,
School Personnel Resource Guide
(English, DOC 11.78 MB)
Integrating Wraparound in Schools
- Helping Traumatized Children Learn
This approach was developed by the Trauma Learning Policy Initiative to provide detailed guidance for creating a school climate that supports all students. The Flexible Framework, detailed within these volumes, helps schools and districts maintain a whole school focus as they create trauma-sensitive schools.
- CSEFEL/Pyramid Model
The Center on Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is focused on promoting the social-emotional development and school readiness of young children from birth to age five. The model also supports the development of skills to intervene with children who are at risk of social and emotional delays and children with persistent challenging behaviors.
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
PBIS is a proactive approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture and needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional, and academic success. It shares the same foundation as CSEFEL/Pyramid Model, though geared towards school-age and older students. For more information, resources, and handouts on this framework, visit www.pbis.org.
Below is a slide deck that provides guidance on how schools can benefit from working with external providers using the Wraparound practice model.
Additional Resources
Open PPT file, 4.51 MB,
Integrating Wraparound in Schools
(English, PPT 4.51 MB)
Open PDF file, 1.86 MB,
Integrating Wraparound in Schools
(English, PDF 1.86 MB)
Educational and Behavioral Health Related State Policy and Initiatives
Department of Early Education and Care (EEC):
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE)
- Bullying Prevention and Intervention and Intervention Resources
- Safe and Supportive Learning Environments
- School Discipline Regulations
- Behavioral Health-Public Schools Assessment Tool
This self-assessment tool was drafted by the Task Force on Behavioral Health and Public Schools. It is designed to assess current activities and strategies that the staff and programs in your school engage in to create a supportive school environment.
- Safe and Supportive Schools Commission (SaSS)
A successor to the Behavioral Health and Public Schools Task Force (see above). Among its charges, the SaSS Commission is working to refine, update, and improve the BHPS framework and forming recommendations on how to best integrate and coordinate the many different required improvement processes that schools and districts must implement.
Additional Behavioral Health and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources
- Collaborative for Academic and Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
CASEL promotes evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) in education from preschool through high school. Through research, practice, and policy, CASEL collaborates to ensure all students become knowledgeable, responsible, caring, and contributing members of society.
- CSEFEL/Pyramid Model
The Center on Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is focused on promoting the social-emotional development and school-readiness of young children from birth to age five. It is a national resource center funded by the Office of Head Start and the Child Care Bureau, and disseminates research- and evidence-based practices to early childhood programs across the country.
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
PBIS is a proactive approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional, and academic success. It shares the same DNA as the CSEFEL/Pyramid Model, though geared towards school-age and older students.
- Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Opportunities for Massachusetts, Lessons for the Nation
The Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy conducted a study to better understand how SEL policy, practice, and measurement are being implemented in states and districts across the country. This report takes SEL lessons from around the country and uses them to assess the situation in Massachusetts.
- National School Climate Center (NSCC)
NSCC is an organization that helps schools integrate crucial social and emotional learning with academic instruction.
- National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE)
NCSSLE seeks to improve schools' conditions for learning through measurement and program implementation, so that all students have the opportunity to realize academic success in safe and supportive environments.