Some considerations for this process:

• Create a leadership team. Develop a core group of leaders that align around a shared vision and have the credibility and relationships to engage others. The leaders should represent key sectors, be passionate about the work, and be truly committed to a collaborative process. This group may likely have come together prior to launching a needs assessment and may be critical in guiding that process. This core team of leaders may become a more formal body to lead the school health initiative.
• Identify partners to engage. Local partners are key and including partners outside the “normal” circle can be instrumental in generating innovative strategies and resources to implement them. If not already part of your leadership team, some key partners to consider engaging may include: County Offices of Education, school district leadership, Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs), County Behavioral Health Departments, students, and families. In addition, and depending on your needs assessment and information about resources available in the community to support the school mental health initiative, a partial list of other partners you may want to engage include: community mental health providers, community health centers, Medi-Cal and other prominent managed care organizations (particularly relevant as the state rolls out its Multi-Payer Fee Schedule for School Mental Health, local First 5 programs, state agencies (e.g., California Department of Social Services), hospitals, local philanthropy, employers/business groups, youth- and family-focused community-based organizations, child welfare agencies, juvenile justice, colleges/trade schools, faith-based organizations, and community representatives.
• Develop a shared mission and vision, scope of work, and timeline for implementation. An implementation timeline should take into consideration the school calendar including when schools typically hire staff (i.e. March-June) and capitalize on existing time (i.e. in-service training for school staff) to prepare school and community partners for collaborative work.
• Clarify language use and terminology. Schools, County Behavioral Health Departments, and community partners use different language to describe services provided and student/youth needs. Creating common lists of terms, acronyms, and definitions will help support how your team communicates with each other.
• Create memorandum of understanding (MOUs) or working agreements. MOUs and/or contracts may be helpful at both the school site and service level (i.e. between school site providers and schools) and between leadership entities (i.e. between COEs and county behavioral health departments).

How to Start and Sustain a School Health Initiative (Alameda County Center for Healthy Schools and Communities)

A step-by-step guide through the stages it takes to implement an initiative for regional and county teams. Specifically, this includes creating a plan, formalizing agreements through contracts, and creating high level strategies

Partnering With Schools to Improve Youth Mental Health: A Resource for Community Mental Health and Substance Use Care Organizations (National Center for Mental Wellbeing)

Guide specifically for building partnerships between schools and community mental health organizations and substance use organizations

School Mental Health Quality Guide: Teaming (National Center for School Mental Health)

A guide with background information on teaming, best practices, possible action steps, examples from the field, and resources

Principles of Effective Partnerships (Natl Center for Community Schools)

12 principles to guide smooth and effective partnerships.

Possible Partners in Delivering School Mental Health (California School-Based Health Alliance)

A resource for understanding the types of regional partner organizations for delivering school mental health services and programs

MOUs

Anatomy of an MOU (National Center for School Mental Health)

A template illustrating the components of an MOU that school-community partnerships may include. You will also need to consider relevant state law in any contract development in California

Sample MOUs/Other agreements

School District Letter of Agreement (LOA) (Alameda County)

An LOA between an LEA and school-based mental health provider

ISF Collaborative Partner Working Agreement (Monterey County)

A working agreement between a participating school district, county office of education, and county behavioral health department

MOU Template (Monterey County)

Boilerplate contract between county behavioral health department and school district for the provision of therapeutic services for students in the district

Systems Management, Advocacy and Resource Team MOU (Placer County)

An MOU for a county-level partnership across various youth-serving agencies and entities

Sample MOU – (Los Angeles Unified School District)

An MOU between district and mental health provider

Sample MOU (SSCOE)

MOU between COE and Managed Care Plan

Scope of School Mental Health Initiatives (California School-Based Health Alliance)

A resource that highlights examples of scope from a couple counties and identifies some key questions to consider when planning where to start

Summaries of County-School Partnerships to Advance School Mental Health (California School-Based Health Alliance)

Descriptions of how local entities in seven counties are partnering to advance school-based mental health services. Information is provided about what services are included in the initiatives, lead partners, how the partnerships evolved, how coordination is supported, and what funding is leveraged

Mental Health Student Services Act (MHSSA) Grant Summaries (Mental Health Oversight and Accountability Commission)

Summaries of grants awarded to establish mental health partnerships between County Mental Health or Behavioral Health Departments and educational entities

Advancing Education Effectiveness: Interconnecting School Mental Health and School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (Center on PBIS)

This guide provides a framework to connect school mental health services with PBIS. It includes many resources and tools for developing the systems, collaborations, and practices to do this work. Some helpful tools for partnerships include:

• Appendix B, Building an Inclusive Community of Practice – Four Simple Questions (page 134)
• Appendix E, Implementation Guide: District and Community Cross Systems Team (page 140)

Active Implementation Hub (National Implementation Research Network)

An online learning environment for use by any community partner involved in active implementation and scaling up of programs and innovation. Some specific tools:

• Implementation Teams Overview

“Put Your Money on the Table”: Interagency Coordination to Address the Crisis in Student Mental and Behavioral Health (WestEd)

Report that illustrates how COEs collaborate to identify and address mental and behavioral health needs, support the coordination of resources and available funding, and help form sustainable long-term partnerships and practices

Example of Team Agendas

Monterey County’s ISF Leadership Team Calendar

An example of the discussion topics and content covered at monthly leadership team meetings. This is a helpful resource for considering how to onboard members and build a monthly calendar of coordination meetings