PRCH Receives $2.8M Grant to Launch Compassionate School Leadership Academy Project

Yale researchers from the university's Department of Psychiatry Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) have been awarded a $2.8 million grant as part of new investments made by the U.S. Department of Education under the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program.

Maria O'Connell, PhD, co-principal investigator; Martha Staeheli, PhD, and Janis Tondora, PsyD, received the award through a highly-competitive grant application process to launch the Compassionate School Leadership Academy (CSLA) project — a joint endeavor with the Center for Educational Improvement (CEI); Christine Mason, PhD, is executive director of CEI and is co-principal investigator on the project.

This project builds upon a four-year partnership that CEI and PRCH established as part of the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s School-Based Mental Health Initiative funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The mission of the CSLA project is to prepare school leaders in high-need districts to be culturally responsive and proactive in implementing trauma-conscious practices in the classroom. With this SEED investment, nearly $1 million will be disbursed during the first year to support an immediate and direct response to the urgent mental health needs of American children by establishing a nationwide network of educational leaders trained in Compassionate School Practices (CSPs.)

The project is further supported by a match of in-kind and related services, with a 25 percent match of $985,000 throughout the three-year project from TeachLink, CEI, the Michigan Elementary and Middle Schools Principals Association, and participating schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a changing sociopolitical landscape, a children's mental health crisis, and school budget constraints, has compounded problems in the classroom. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), as of August 2022, found that staff at 53 percent of all public schools reported feeling understaffed entering the 2022-23 school year, and 69 percent said a lack of qualified candidates was a prevalent challenge to hiring educators.

Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated social isolation, human loss, and economic instability have overwhelmed American youth, resulting in a 31 percent increase in emergency room visits for mental health reasons.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that death by suicide is now the second leading cause of mortality for those ages 10-14, and the third leading cause of death for those ages 15-24.

"I am thrilled the approach engages educators in culturally informed and responsive trauma-conscious practices that can be sustained and disseminated," said Chyrell Bellamy, PhD, professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and director of PRCH. "Yale PRCH is happy to be a part of this national collaboration.

O'Connell said, "The CSLA combines over 20 years of experience in systems research, participatory methods, and implementation science with the delivery of evidence-based social-emotional learning practices in schools. Our interdisciplinary collaboration among nationally and strategically poised experts in science and education will help to ensure the knowledge gained from this research is relevant and will be rapidly disseminated among all levels of the education system."

According to Staeheli, the CSLA project director, "This effort expands upon our collaborative work with CEI where we brought mental health providers and educators together to better support children with the most serious emotional and behavioral challenges in New England. The project allows us to identify and combat the challenges students and teachers face and prepare leaders to create inclusive, identity-safe learning environments for their students and develop students' social and emotional skills from the ground up."

Tondora, who will serve as the CSLA's director of systems transformation, said, "Drawing from our work with mental health systems of care, the CSLA is designed to guide whole school communities through the process of making a transformational shift in changing the culture and climate of our schools. We're looking forward to collaborating with all stakeholders to enhance CSPs that support student mental health and academic achievement."

The U.S. Department of Education awards innovative grants to address nationwide teacher shortages and to help ensure long-term investments in school development programs across the country. New investments under the SEED program include 22 new three-year grants totaling more than $60 million.

The CSLA Project is a collaborative effort that includes the following partners: Metis and Associates, TeachLink, Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, Social Emotional Learning Alliance for Massachusetts (SEL4MA), Michigan Virtual, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP).