Our pilot program demonstrated the efficacy of our comprehensive school mental health model.

In 2022, CFA partnered with KIPP Prize Preparatory Academy in San Jose, CA to pilot the program for 1 homeroom of 32 seventh graders.

75% of students screened qualified for and received therapy;

100% of them met their treatment goals

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Here are our main takeaways.

  • Trust is key for gaining consent​

    Universal screeners only work when there is a full-time clinician in place that kids and families can trust enough to be vulnerable and open about their mental health needs. 12 out of 32 of the kids in the pilot classroom consented to taking the universal screener. We must improve this number.

  • Clarifying a clinician's role helps build trust​

    When clinicians are integrated into school staff, their roles become normalized and students become acclimated to the services that they are able to provide.

  • Community members know best

    Students trust and listen to already-established community members within their schools. Rather than starting from scratch for outreach efforts, reaching out to trusted communities within schools helps students trust their clinicians even more.

  • Clinicians need to be full-time​

    100% of the students who qualified for treatment after taking the universal screener were able to meet ALL of their mental health goals that were created in their treatment plans. This was only possible because our pilot made clinicians accessible and available to those students. Scaling to more students means hiring more clinicians full-time.