Approve the Interagency Agreement with Florida Department of Children and Families, Suncoast Region, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Program Office; and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Central Region; and the Hillsborough Local Planning Team (Student Services and Federal Programs Division)

In September, 2007, the School District was awarded the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of this grant was to increase student access to high quality mental health care by developing innovative approaches that link the school system with local mental health providers. One of the products of this work was to develop an Interagency Agreement (IAA) between local providers and the School District. The Supervisor of School Social Work will remain an active member of the Local Planning Team after the grant period is over. This Supervisor will serve as the liaison between the Local Planning Team and the District to sustain the efforts to continue to better link mental health services and schools from October 8, 2008, through October 7, 2009.

Goal 5 – The District will eliminate the FCAT achievement gap by a minimum of 10 percentage points as reported by No Child Left Behind.

$322,756 – This was awarded to the District from this federal grant to support a variety of planning activities. This Interagency Agreement is designed to help sustain and develop these links with mental health providers once the grant funds end on January 31, 2009.

Dr. Tom Massey of the Department of Child and Family Studies, in the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, serves as the grant evaluator. Program evaluation is an on-going component of this planning project. Evaluation information is used to plan future grant activities. Evaluation resources include a resource mapping survey, key informant interviews, focus groups, and data analysis. Dr. Massey is also responsible for producing a final evaluation report at the end of the grant period.