School-Based Youth Services are programs that operate in over 90 schools across New Jersey. These programs provide in-person mental health, youth development, group, crisis intervention, and extra-curricular services to students for free throughout various schools in the state of New Jersey. 

The Department of Children and Families is proposing to, once again, eliminate all SBYSP around the state effective July 1, 2023.  The replacement to SBYSP includes a HUB and Spoke model titled NJ4S, that will create 15 “hubs” located across the state to provide resources, education, referrals and support to schools and communities.  The Hubs are not expected to provide the immediate access to mental health and prevention services that our existing School Based Programs has for over 35 years.

The pandemic left devastating consequences on the mental health of students and families in our schools. Rates of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents are consistently on the rise, and the current nature of change in schooling and social climates will only contribute to this in students of all ages and backgrounds.

School-based programs provide students on a daily basis with the mental health and crisis intervention services that they are in such need of right now, and there will be a significant gap in the care of these students without these programs. Many students are not able to afford mental health care outside of School-Based for various reasons, and these students will now not be able to receive services necessary to their development and health. Besides for just cost, we also remove many barriers to accessing mental health services, such as transportation needs and working around schedules. The current health crisis in our country has made mental health care all the more important, yet the needs of New Jersey students are not being given the priority they deserve! 

#saveschoolbased

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