The Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) plays a leadership role in delivering quality education to the students in Sacramento County. SCOE directly educates more than 30,000 youth and adults, including thousands of district educators through training sessions and workshops each year.
To ensure opportunity and access, SCOE is building partnerships to enhance wellness support services to over 247,000 students in 13 school districts.
For students who need access to mental and behavioral health resources — a big focus in California schools — SCOE has partnered with the Sacramento County Department of Health Services to address the crisis in student mental and behavioral health. The goal is to transform schools to be places of education and centers of health, wellness, and prevention where students can thrive.
“Students no longer need to be in crisis to receive the support they need,” says Chris Williams, Director of School-Based Mental Health and Wellness. “This is culture-shifting work.”
“We are committed to reimagining schools as ‘Centers of Wellness’ that provide access to essential resources to support the development of the whole child. At the heart of this effort is a sustainably funded mental health clinician in every school and nearly 40 clinicians are already serving in our schools.” — David W. Gordon, Superintendent of Schools, Sacramento County Office of Education
In order to support workforce development, “We are poised to grow a new generation of motivated mental health professionals and educators Pre-K through 12,” says Dr. Nancy Herota, Deputy Superintendent. “Early education teachers, special education teachers, and mental health clinicians—we have created those workforce pipelines.”
SCOE’s vision is to bring education and health systems together as partners to create a continuum of care for mental health and wellness throughout Sacramento County’s education system(s) and early intervention to ultimately eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline, reduce the number of ‘system- involved’ adults and adolescents, and mitigate the onset and impact of mental health disorders in Sacramento County.
