School Mental Health Referral Pathways

The school mental health team is responsible for the oversight and implementation of a school’s mental health referral pathway. Mental health teams include a variety of school staff, community members, and student and family representatives. This team should be integrated with the school’s established PBIS/MLSS teams to promote alignment across the system.

• Teaming Quality Guide- From the National Center for School Mental Health, the quality guide contains background information on teaming best practices, possible action steps, examples from the field, and resources.
• Multidisciplinary School Mental Health Teams Roles and Functions Template - From the National Center for School Mental Health, this template aids teams in clarifying roles within a school or district mental health team (word version available).
• SHAPE Quality Assessment- This assessment is used to improve the quality of school mental health systems, including teaming. The system also includes a resource library with additional teaming resources.
• ISF Implementation Workbook, Team Inventory Activity- From Midwest PBIS, the Team Inventory guides teams in assessing current teaming and developing team operating procedures (word version available).

An effective referral pathway proactively identifies student needs and matches students to evidence-based interventions and supports that best fit those needs. Referral procedures are clearly defined, accessible to everyone, and communicated to staff, students, community partners, and families. Staff understand their role in collecting referrals, expanding upon initial referral information, making decisions about interventions and supports, and documenting the process.

• Referral Form template- The referral from provides customizable templates for staff, family, and peer referrals (word version available).

Mental health teams establish processes and procedures for expanding on initial referrals. Direct student observation, interviews, and assessments are examples of approaches teams may use to increase their understanding of the student’s strengths and challenges. The results of these information-gathering processes can also provide important information about the adult behaviors and school and district policies and procedures that may be contributing to the student concern. This information is used in conjunction with existing data to inform team decisions about how to best support the student, and should be shared with consideration for confidentiality and information sharing and privacy laws.

• A Roadmap for Building on Youth Strengths- From the National Wraparound Initiative, the document includes information on how to assess student strengths, including a strengths inventory tool.
• Culturally Responsive Problem-Solving Guide- From DPI, this guide provides strategies that support culturally relevant decision-making processes to help close the gap between students of color and their peers.
• Screening and Assessment Library- This SHAPE system resource includes a list of free and low-cost screening and assessment tools.

Mental health referral pathway procedures generate referral forms, observation, interviews, releases of information, and other paperwork that need to be securely stored. Teams will determine appropriate levels of access for team members that best maintain student confidentiality.

• Sharing Records Across Systems - From DPI, this document provides guidance on disclosure of student records to other systems.
• Student Records and Confidentiality- From DPI, this document helps school districts develop local policies regarding student records and confidentiality.
• Resources for Student Data Privacy- From DPI, this page contains a variety of resources for districts and parents.

School Mental Health teams engage in needs assessment to gather, analyze, and share information on student risk and protective factors. Existing student data, screener results, and broader community data are examples of useful indicators of strengths and risks. Resource mapping, on the other hand, is a process of identifying available supports and evaluating the breadth and quality of those supports. Engaging in these complimentary processes ensure that appropriate interventions are available when student needs arise.

• School Mental Health Quality Guide: Needs Assessment and Resources Mapping- From the National Center for School Mental Health, this guide provides background information on needs assessment and resource mapping, best practices, possible action steps, examples from the field, and resources.
• Resource Mapping Checklist- This template provides a list of possible resources to be included in the resources mapping process.
• Gap Analysis Worksheet- From the National Center for School Mental Health, this worksheet helps schools identify gaps between needs and available resources.
• Screening Resource Guide- From Wisconsin DPI, this resource guide provides information on selecting, implementing, and action planning around screening results.
• SHAPE Quality Assessment- This assessment is used to improve the quality of school mental health systems. Needs assessment/resource mapping is one of the quality domains included in this tool.

A major role of the School Mental Health Team is to ensure that students are paired with the most appropriate and helpful interventions available. To ensure efficient and effective triage, teams create decision rules for determining when a student needs a level 2 or 3 intervention, if an intervention is complete or should be discontinued, and possible sources of positive outcome data.

School mental health teams should establish and utilize a system for monitoring the effectiveness of the interventions and supports provided to students. This includes gathering both process and outcomes data on interventions delivered in school, effectiveness data from community partners, and feedback from the student and their family.

• What Makes a Goal Smart? From DPI, this tool provides definitions and examples of SMART goals.
• Student Information Systems Issue Brief- From the National Center for School Mental Health, this issue brief helps schools and districts better identify the right student information system to meet their needs.