Mental Health Experts To Support Teachers And Students In Several Broken Arrow Schools

GRAND Mental Health is partnering with Broken Arrow Public Schools to provide in-school behavioral health support.

When the new school year starts in August, several Broken Arrow schools will have GRAND team members on site to provide mental and behavioral health support to students.

GRAND will have team members in three early childhood centers, three elementary schools and one middle school.

GRAND is eager to work with students in the early childhood centers because those children were born during the pandemic, and this may be their first time in an educational setting or social environment.

Clinical Director for Outpatient Services, Kelsee McCutchen, said this service will not only help students but support teachers as well.

"Our goal is to be able to provide support so that way teachers can be teachers and not have to be behavior managers. We have behavioral health coaches that will be able to be in the classrooms with kids who are struggling, so they can stay and learn and not have to be taken out of the classroom because their behaviors are just a little bit too much to manage," McCutchen said.

Broken Arrow's Director of Early Childhood and Parent Engagement, Teresa Bowker said she believes this partnership also benefits the family because students can get the help they need at school.

"They can drop their child off for school in the morning, and then those services can be offered to the students during the school day. It’s been a total win-win because the parent does not have to get off work to take the child. The child doesn't have to lose time at school in learning. It’s all here," Bowker said.

The hope is that a partnership like this will not only help the students mentally, but also help with attendance rates and better grades as well.