City Cast: As D.C. Weighs Budget Cuts, Families Fear Loss of Youth Mental Health Support

Emma Uber of City Cast DC reports on impending cuts to school-based behavioral health and youth crisis response, as well as terminations of existing partnerships with many of the community-based organizations that provide these services. The article features the voices of several individuals who signed on to a letter which was drafted and distributed by members of the Strengthening Families Coalition.

"At a time when children across the District are facing deep instability, DBH is attempting to pull students’ trusted adults from their schools,” said Danielle Robinette, a senior policy attorney at Children’s Law Center, one of the organizations that signed the letter.

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Harris said that as a Ward 8 resident raising fifth-generation Washingtonians, community-based organizations can feel more in-tune with neighborhood-specific concerns. She said her sons have made progress when they’ve developed relationships with school-based clinicians, and that they’ve grown comfortable with ChAMPS because they know the program was designed in part to divert children away from law enforcement and, if possible, avoid hospitalization.

“It just doesn’t seem like an ideal time to reduce or disrupt the community-based mental health resources,” Harris said. “Shifting these services into a more strictly clinical structure, it’s not attractive to my community so it might unintentionally reduce accessibility.”

Chandler Dennard, a music teacher at Kimball Elementary School in Greenway, also expressed concern about the timing. He said some of his students’ parents have lost jobs this year and have had to move in with relatives. These children need stability at school, he said, and he worried the potential loss of Kimball Elementary’s contracts with an art therapist or Hillcrest Children & Family Center could feel like a disruption.