For over 50 years, we have pursued theory, research, practice and training related to improving how schools address mental health, psychosocial, and educational concerns. Our early work was lab-school based. In 1986, we established the School Mental Health Project (SMHP) as a platform for moving from the laboratory setting into public schools.

From 1986-1995, SMHP worked closely with school districts, local and state agencies, special initiatives, and organizations and colleagues across the country. We pursued major implementation projects with federal and foundation funding. These focused our R & D efforts on the processes involved in translating what we had learned in the laboratory into the “real world” (which we often experience as the “surreal world”). The specific arenas of focus were (a) public school approaches to dropout prevention, (b) the MH facets of school-based health centers, and (c) development of comprehensive, school-based approaches for students with learning, behavior, and emotional problems.

In 1995, under the auspices of the School Mental Health Project and with federal grants, we established the national Center for Mental Health in Schools. And to help us continue moving forward with an expanded national platform, in 2009 we were able to establish for a period of time a unique public-private partnership with Scholastic, Inc.

In 2015, the Center established the National Initiative for Transforming Student and learning Supports – see https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/newinitiative.html .

In 2017, to more fully underscore the breadth of the work, the Center’s name was expanded; the name is now the Center for MH in Schools & Student/Learning Supports.

As we approach the 2024-2025 school year, we recognize the urgent necessity of accelerating our efforts to (1) continue providing resources to the field at large and (2) advance efforts to implement and sustain new directions for addressing barriers to learning and teaching, with a focus on replication to scale in school districts.

For the focus of our continuing and current work, see https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/aboutwork.pdf