Equity of services for rural, tribal, and frontier schools across montana under stop act category 2, program areas 3) training school personnel and educating students on preventing school violence,…

The Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative (WMPLC), in partnership with the Montana Small School Alliance (MSSA), will deliver counseling supports, mental health services, and violence prevention tools to nearly 150 rural, tribal, and frontier schools across Montana through September 2025 under a $999,999 project grant from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance.

The funding supports objectives of the STOP School Violence program (CFDA 16.839) by providing comprehensive school counseling, trauma-informed care, e-therapy assessments and treatment, and other crucial resources to improve safety in underserved school communities. Approximately 120 small MSSA member districts currently rely on teachers without counseling credentials to fill this role. The WMPLC/MSSA partnership aims to increase equity of student services through this $999,999 project grant awarded October 1, 2022.

Equity of services for rural, tribal, and frontier schools across montana under stop act category 2, program areas 3) training school personnel and educating students on preventing school violence, and 5) hiring school support personnel directly supporting the prevention of school violence, western montana professional learning collaborative (wmplc), in partnership with the montana small school alliance (mssa), is proposing a project to increase the equity of student services for rural, tribal, and frontier schools across the state of montana. Mssa has close to 150 small school member districts and 120 of them are operating without a single credentialed school counselor, leaving one of their teachers to take a single three-hour session (provided by mssa) and then take on the counseling responsibilities for their school in addition to their teaching role. Some teachers also have the library media specialist tasks as well. These rural and tribal schools are exceptionally under- resourced. The purpose of this project is to deliver to underserved areas comprehensive school counseling, mental health services, and other resources that are crucial for creating and sustaining safe schools. Increased access to resources, trauma-informed care, school counselors, e-therapy assessments and treatment, as proposed in the project, is vital to improving the physical and psychological safety of the school community. The wmplc/mssa partnership aims to serve nearly 150 small school member districts, tribal schools, and frontier schools by providing counseling supports, mental health services, and proven violence prevention tools that are desperately needed by students, staff, and families across montana.