A new partnership between Madison’s WEA Member Benefits and Wisconsin’s school districts is supporting students’ access to mental health resources, according to WMTV15. The move comes as mental health struggles continue to increase for younger age groups in the post-pandemic era.
In 2019, the WEA Member Benefits Foundation was created to help schools meet mental health needs; efforts began with a pilot program involving five state school districts: Madison, Sun Prairie, Watertown, Appleton, and Racine. The districts received $1 million collectively through the foundation.
The pilot program’s first year and a half was evaluated by the UW Center for Community and Non-Profit Studies, which found that students from those five districts were attending classes more often and completing tasks they weren’t before the mental health services were offered. Educators in those districts corroborated the findings.
WEA Member Benefits Foundation is currently working to support the over 420 school districts statewide by connecting them with free resources to bolster mental health support.
