Boston Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships | School-Based Initiative

BCHNP promotes and fosters the social, emotional, and behavioral health and well-being of students, caregivers, and staff through our School-Based Initiative. In partnership with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and other districts within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. BCHNP psychologists and social workers work on site in partner schools as integrated and essential members of school communities. As part of school teams, our clinicians build intentional partnerships to understand the unique ecology of each school to meet the needs of the school and community. Our team collaborates with school staff and community partners to provide a full and flexible spectrum of equitable and culturally inclusive services to students and their families through a tiered approach, including capacity building, prevention, promotion, early intervention, and clinical intervention.

• Assess needs and strengths of partnering schools each year through observations, relationship building, listening in individual and group/settings, soliciting feedback, and use of the formal BCHNP needs assessment and existing school data.
• Work collaboratively with school community members to develop data-informed, multi-tiered intervention plans.
• Provide multi-tiered services (e.g., therapy, groups, classroom interventions, whole-school initiatives, and training) that are culturally responsive/informed and utilize best practices.
• Build capacity of school behavioral health systems by supporting school staff’s awareness, knowledge, and skills of identified needs through collaboration, continued learning, and consultation.
• Utilize a variety of outcome measures across individuals, groups, classrooms, and systems to assess the impact of services delivered.

BCHNP reaches about 1,200 students and provides 500 hours of training and consultation to school staff and families/caregivers annually.