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NASP Priorities Funded in FY 2020 Spending Bills
This week, Congress approved their FY 2020 federal spending bills. The bills are widely expected to be signed by President Trump and will fund the government through September of 2020.
All of NASP's funding priorities received level funding or saw an increase. One noteworthy success is a $10 million grant to provide awards to "SEAs, LEAs, or consortia of LEAs to increase the number of qualified, well-trained counselors, social workers, psychologists, or other mental health professionals that provide school-based mental health services to students." While the funding is a drop in the bucket given the scope of the nationwide shortage problem, NASP is thankful to Congressional appropriators for recognizing the need to address the lack of access that students have to mental health services in schools. We will share more information about this grant and how to apply once we have more details.
Relevant to school psychologists and NASP priorities, the bill also includes funding for the following programs:
- $16.3 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, an increase of $450 million
- $13.9 billion for Special Education, an increase of $417 million. This includes $12.8 billion for Part B Grants to States, an increase of $400 million.
- $2.1 billion for high quality professional development for teachers, principals, specialized instructional support personnel, and other educators (Title II-A), an increase of $76 million over the 2019 enacted level.
- $1.2 billion for Student Support and Academic Enrichment State Grants (Title IV-A), an increase of $40 million above the 2019 enacted level. This formula grant helps districts increase access to a well-rounded curriculum, implement programming to support safe and healthy students, and increase the effective use of education technology.
- $123 million for a new Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Initiative to support SEL and "whole child" approaches to education.
- $25 million (split between the CDC and NIH) to gun violence research.
- $54 million for suicide prevention programs, including the Garret Lee Smith Suicide Prevention State Grants to support suicide prevention activities for youth and funding for the national Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK).
- $102 million for Project AWARE, an increase of $31 million, which helps increase awareness of mental health issues among youth, provides training for adults to help them identify students at risk and connect them with needed resources in the school and community.
- $69 million for the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, an increase of $5 million.
NASP is thankful for your continued advocacy for funding streams that are critical to support students across the country. You can read a full summary of the bill here.
If you have any questions about grant opportunities or funding streams, contact Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, NASP Director of Policy and Advocacy at [email protected].