What’s behind Evers’ $300 million proposal for childrenmental health
Years after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers described Wisconsin’s state of mental health as a “burgeoning crisis” and made the issue a focus of his 2023-25 budget, 164 school mental health professionals have been added to Wisconsin school districts, private charter schools and tribal schools.
That staffing boost, while significant, hasn’t been enough to fully address the mental health issues showing up in young people.
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And so, last Wednesday in his State of the State address, Evers said he planned to propose $300 million for children’s mental health programs in an effort to “start treating our state’s mental health crisis with the urgency it requires … especially for our kids.”
Although he’s yet to submit his budget proposal, he appears set to move much of the proposal unveiled by state superintendent Jill Underly last October. That would make it the largest proposal for children’s mental health in state history.
Here’s what to know.
Why is Evers considering so much money?
While $300 million may look massive at first glance, it’s an amount dwarfed by the $3.5 billion in federal dollars Wisconsin schools received through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER funds,from March 2020 until October 2024. The funds came from a $276 billion national investment to combat learning loss and the burgeoning youth mental health crisis resulting from COVID-19.
As of November, 95% of those funds had been used, largely to support additional staffing ― including a battery of newly hired school-based mental health professionals. Now, for the first time in four years, school districts have to hammer out budgets without the federal boost.
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The loss “significantly impacted school budgets” and “directly affects funding the well-being of students,” DPI spokesperson Chris Bucher told the Journal Sentinel.
For Leia Esser, executive director of student and staff supports at Madison Metropolitan School District, it’s difficult to plan ahead knowing that so much hinges on the final budget, which likely won’t be enacted until July.
“Right now we’re running three different budget scenarios until July, when the Legislature makes some decisions,” Esser said.
How would these proposals impact Wisconsin schools?
For two years, Wisconsin school districts, independent charter schools and tribal schools received two rounds of funding, the first in spring 2022 and the second in spring 2023, through the Get Kids Ahead Initiative.
The funding, which totaled $30 million, was distributed on a per-pupil basis for mental health services depending on enrollment.
In the last budget, that broke down to about $31 per-pupil and was used to train staff and engage in professional development.
The funding also allowed school districts, charter schools and tribal schools to hire 55 additional school counselors, 33 school social workers, 23 school psychologists, 23 mental health navigators, seven interventionists (used to help students struggling academically and/or socially) and 23 other mental health positions.
Funding also started the important work of connecting students and families to therapy.
Underly proposed an expansion of the school-based mental health services program, which would provide every local education agency in the state $100 per pupil with a minimum of $100,000 per school district, which would amount to $168 million over the 2025-27 biennium.
The per-pupil metric makes sense from an equity perspective, said Esser, because it allows schools across the state, whether rural or urban, to determine what makes sense depending on the district’s body of needs.
Should the Legislature remove this provision from the budget altogether, DPI estimates that the per-pupil amount would decrease to about $12.
Do Wisconsin schools have a shortage of mental health professionals?
According to DPI’s 2023-24 all-staff report, the state has 2,311 school counselors, 840 school social workers and 1,155 school psychologists. These numbers don’t reflect the number of outside providers who work with schools when needs are identified, Bucher said.
While the number of school psychologists is certainly improving across Wisconsin, according to data from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), Wisconsin still has a way to go before it reaches the optimal ratio of 500 students per one school psychologist. Wisconsin’s ratio currently sits between 500 and 1,000 per school psychologist, according to the latest NASP report.
Meanwhile, the dearth of school social workers in Wisconsin is of concern. While the average ratio is one social worker for every 250 students, Wisconsin’s current ratio is one social worker per 1,014 students. Just 39% of school districts have at least one school social worker.
Across all three school-based mental health categories, the state is seeing improvements, but as the Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health noted in its 2024 annual report, “totals are far below recommended levels, and their services are not reimbursed at sustainable rates.”
To help improve the odds for young people, Evers said he would be proposing more than $129.9 million to support the hiring of more school mental health professionals and improve the reimbursement rates for mental health professionals treating students on public health insurance.
“If you can imagine developing a strong relationship with a therapist and then, annually, having that change as a result of bureaucratic aspects of budgeting, it’s a really scary prospect,” said Esser. “That’s something I really want Legislature to be thinking about.”
How are Republicans responding so far?
Following Evers’ State of the State address Wednesday evening, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Journal Sentinel that, while he has to wait and see what Evers’ entire budget reflects, the mental health proposals are “unaffordable.”
“What we heard here was a bunch of empty promises that will not be able to be delivered without either massive tax increases or massive spending cuts,” Vos said. “We’re never going to approve massive tax increases and I don’t think he’s going to support massive spending reductions, so I don’t think any of it is realistic.”
State Sen. Devin Lemahieu (R-Oostburg), meanwhile, deferred to state Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) and Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), who each serve as chairs of the Senate and Assembly Committees on Mental Health, Substance Abuse Prevention, Children and Families.
Still, Lemahieu underscored the significance of the issue.
“We’ve increased mental health spending from virtually nothing, from when I was first elected, to $30 million in the last budget,” Lemahieu said. “It’s vitally important that we keep investing in mental health.”
Laura Schulte of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at [email protected] or view her X (Twitter) profile at @natalie_eilbert.
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