Seven years ago, Florida lawmakers responded to the deadly school shooting in Parkland with a pledge: more money for student mental health. Since then, the state’s Mental Health Assistance Allocation has more than doubled, sending over $175 million to school districts this academic year alone.

But school officials say the rising need is outpacing resources.

In Sarasota County, school leaders recently voted to end a contract with a long-standing provider of elementary school therapists, citing a need to stretch limited dollars further. 

In Manatee County, the district mental health coordinator says state funding has helped but they don’t always have enough time or personnel to serve every student in-house.

And in DeSoto County, where funding is leaner but stretches further, even having one mental health staffer at each school could be considered a milestone.

“We don’t get enough money from the state for mental health services,” Sarasota School Board member Tom Edwards said at a school board meeting in April. “It’s still not enough.”

Suncoast Searchlight analyzed state data, reviewed districts’ mental health plans and interviewed school and policy officials to examine how mental health dollars are distributed and used across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties.

The findings reveal how state funding is allocated, how much each district receives and the ways school leaders are spending those funds — from hiring staff to contracting with outside providers — as they work to meet growing demand with limited resources.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR SUNCOAST SEARCHLIGHT’S WEEKLY NEWLETTER

Parkland shooting led to surge in school mental health funding

The Florida Legislature established the Mental Health Assistance Allocation for schools in 2018 – weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. The program was part of a sweeping bill aimed at curbing gun violence, especially in schools.

Since then, allocations to countywide school districts have more than doubled – from $68 million the first year to over $175 million today, according to a Suncoast Searchlight analysis of state data. Those figures don’t include funding to Florida Virtual School or university-affiliated lab schools.

Each school district receives a base allocation of $100,000, plus an additional amount based on enrollment. The enrollment-based formula means that, in the Suncoast, funding ranged from about $349,000 in DeSoto County to over $3.3 million in Manatee County this year. Sarasota schools received $2.8 million.

In the recent School Mental Health Report Card released by mental health advocacy group Inseparable, Florida is highlighted for providing funding for and requiring schools to provide mental health support to students.

“We know that when you get help early, the outcomes are much better. We want these kids to be able to be back in the classroom learning,” said Caitlin Hochul, Vice President of Public Policy at Inseparable and a co-author of the report card. “By providing these services where they spend so much of their time, you’re really benefiting their mental well-being, and you’re helping with longer term outcomes.”

.

Districts use the state funds to provide individual and group services for students, train staff and connect families to outside resources, among other responsibilities.

In Manatee County, the money has allowed the district to reduce its ratio of school social workers to students, according to Mental Health Coordinator Sara Sanders. It also has allowed the district to contract with community agencies for mental health counseling on campus. 

“(The funding) impacts our students greatly,” Sanders said.

Sarasota County had used some of the money to put therapists in its elementary schools through a contract with The Florida Center for Early Childhood for therapists. But the board cited funding woes in its decision to end that contract and redirect funds to district-managed services. 

“There’s a proactive thought of, ‘how can we service more students with the same amount of dollars?’” Edwards said during the April school board meeting.

While state funding for mental health services has gone up since the program’s inception, so has the need. Youth mental health challenges were on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic, and schools nationwide have reported increased demand for services.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposed 2025-26 budget includes a $10 million increase to the mental health allocation – for a total of $190 million to schools statewide; however, the Florida Senate and House of Representatives are currently at odds on the state budget – with a $4.4 billion gap between proposals.

Chief of Student Services Kirk Hutchinson said at the April board meeting that Sarasota County Schools is not expecting any increase to its mental health allocation from the state for the 2025-26 school year. If that expectation bears out, it would be the first time in the fund’s history that any local school district did not receive an increase.

In the Suncoast, annual funding boosts have been especially beneficial to Manatee and Sarasota county schools. Both districts saw a higher percent change in funding over time than the statewide increase. In DeSoto County, which has a much smaller student population, funding also has increased but at a lower rate.

Per-student funding lags behind real-world costs 

Despite the smaller increase in DeSoto County, state dollars can stretch further there. 

With about 4,155 students enrolled this year, the district’s allocation amounts to $84 per student for mental health programs, though not all students need to access mental health services. Manatee and Sarasota counties received $61 and $62 per student, respectively. 

For comparison, a single therapy session typically costs between $75 and $200, according to a Florida provider and national estimates from Psychology Today and Healthline.

“I think anybody would tell you that they could always use more money and more people,” said Sanders, the Manatee mental health coordinator. 

But she noted that money isn’t the only part of the equation. Schools are charged with many responsibilities, and finding enough hours in the day to attend to all of them is a challenge. Finding enough qualified professionals can be, too.

Student mental health struggles can show up in external behaviors, such as temper tantrums or aggression, which can disrupt instruction for all students in a class. But mental health challenges can also be less visible, such as depression or anxiety.

“It’s easier to miss those students, so we need to make sure that we’re keeping an eye out for them, too,” Sanders said.

Schools employ a mix of specialized counselors, social workers and psychologists to identify and respond to such issues. National professional associations recommend the following ratios of mental health staff to students:

• 1 school counselor per 250 students
• 1 school social worker per 250 students
• 1 school psychologist per 500 students

Local school districts didn’t meet those ratios, according to the mental health plans they submitted to the state last summer. The plans list ratios for direct employment, but schools also may supplement in-house staff through contracts with outside providers.

Nationwide, most schools don’t hit the recommended ratios, but some states have done so for one of the three fields, according to Hochul of Inseparable.

.

In its mental health plan, DeSoto County school officials wrote that, for the current school year, “We are now able to provide a mental health services person at each school as a result of the mental health allocation we receive from the state.”

DeSoto officials did not respond to calls and emails for this story.

Many student mental health challenges stem from a lack of resilience and coping skills, according to Sanders. She said she would like schools to have more capacity to foster those skills.

“Right now, we’re at the point where there are so many students who are having so many difficulties that we’re reacting to those to provide them the support,” she said. “And then we’re utilizing all of our resources to provide the reactive support that we don’t have the time to do the proactive thing.”

Ronan Zeitler, a junior at Suncoast Polytechnical High School, shared a similar message with the Sarasota school board members at their April meeting.

“I’ve had peers come up to me personally and cry and say they’ve been bullied and that they’re having problems at school and at home and with teachers,” Zeitler said.

Responding to those issues is “incredibly important,” he continued, but so is preventing them. “The education of mental health is at the core of what we need to be establishing in order to prepare for the future of our student body’s mental health.”

Florida requires schools to teach five hours per year of “resiliency education” which includes “civic and character education and life skills” for grades 6 to 12, according to the Department of Education.

On the School Mental Health Report Card, Florida received full marks for requiring schools to train teachers and staff in mental health awareness on a regular basis, but only partial marks in mental health literacy education.

The Mental Health Assistance Allocation isn’t the only state funding intended to bolster children and teen’s mental health. 

According to the DOE website, the state also allocates millions in funding for mental health services at the Department of Children and Families, rural school districts and early childhood programs. It also dedicates funding to mental health awareness training for teachers and school staff.

Hochul said there are many barriers to health care in America – from cost to transportation to even finding a provider. Providing mental health services in schools can reduce those barriers.

“It really helps connect kids with the care that they need sooner, and put them on a path to recovery much quicker,” she said.