School of Education Faculty Awarded a Major Five-Year $5 million U.S. Department of Education Grant to Increase the Number of School Counselors in High-Need Schools

December 20, 2024


Sam Steen
(Principal Investigator)

A faculty team from several programs within the School of Education at George Mason University has been awarded a U.S. Department of Education grant to train school-based mental health services providers from underrepresented groups to deliver comprehensive mental health programming for students in Manassas City Public Schools. The grant focuses specifically on preparing individuals to become credentialed school counselors and is part of the Biden Administration’s efforts under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to expand student access to mental health services in high-need K-12 public schools. The training initiative supported by this award is titled the “School Based Mental Health Alliance” and is centered on a partnership that includes George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), and the Manassas City Public Schools district. Funding under this award will approach $5 million ($4,976,702) over five years with $983,439 approved through Congressional appropriations for the first year beginning January 1, 2025.

The Principal Investigator for this initiative is Sam Steen, professor in George Mason’s Counseling program who is leading a multidisciplinary team that includes Co-Principal Investigators Erik Hines, professor in the Counseling program, and Elizabeth Levine Brown, associate professor who is affiliated with both the Elementary Education and the Educational Psychology programs. Other members of the team include Diane Reese and Victoria Stone, both of whom are associate professors in the Counseling program; Khaseem Davis, executive director of George Mason’s Early Identification Program; Mia Hines, associate director of George Mason’s Early Identification Program; Richmond Hill, provost at NOVA Woodbridge Campus; Duhita Mahatmya, University of Iowa; and representatives from the Manassas City Public Schools district.


Erik Hines
(Co-Principal Investigator)

This grant is the first and largest of its kind to be awarded to an institution of higher education in Northern Virginia with funding designated exclusively for the training of individuals to serve as credentialed mental health service providers in high-need K-12 schools. The significant resources provided under this grant will directly benefit Manassas City Public Schools by increasing the number of school counselors who possess expanded clinical training that will enable them to better meet the mental health needs of students within that school district. The scope of funding provided under this award coupled with its targeted, directed purpose will allow the George Mason faculty team and their partners to bring about substantial and positive change in the capacity of Manassas City schools to provide comprehensive mental health services to students and their families.

This award was made under the U.S. Department of Education Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program. The goal of this program is to increase the number and diversity of high-quality, trained mental health service providers, including school counselors, from underrepresented backgrounds to address the shortage of these professionals in high-need schools served by high-need local educational agencies (LEAs). The grant program calls for the creation of multi-institutional training partnerships between high-need LEAs and institutions of higher education to prepare graduate students with the qualifications necessary for placement as mental health service providers in schools that do not have these professionals on staff.


Elizabeth Levine Brown
(Co-Principal Investigator)

Many school districts across the country are facing an increased need for student mental health services in the aftermath of the trauma and disruption caused by the Covid pandemic. At the same time, school districts are struggling to find high quality, trained mental health professionals to deliver these services. Steen shared his thoughts on how the pandemic heightened an already existing student mental health crisis that brought into sharper focus the critical importance of school counselors. Among long-standing issues, a confluence of events that included racial unrest and economic instability contributed to the uptick in the need for student mental health services prior to Covid. Steen observed, “Now, we are in the post-disaster phase of the pandemic, but it is not over. It used to be that school counselors went into school settings and used their clinical training to help students with things like course selection, academic enhancement, college and career readiness, and development of their social emotional learning skills. That is no longer enough. School counselors today are handling a much wider variety of issues that are showing up in our schools and communities daily.”

An overview of the grant-funded training initiative was provided by Brown. She remarked, “We have had school-based mental health services for years. But since Covid, there has been an increased interest in finding systemic ways to support the mental health services that we provide to students in our schools. This includes tier two mental health services such as early intervention and prevention services delivered by mental health service providers including school counselors.”

Brown noted, “There has been a workforce shortage of high-quality school counselors that enter the schools and stay in schools because of the caseload increases we have seen in the mental health needs of students, especially post-Covid. This grant is unique in that it addresses the training of both pre-service and in-service counselors, and it is that element of the award which will help build systemic capacity in school-based mental health services.” Brown pointed out that while many demonstration grants focus only on those individuals entering the school counseling profession for the first time, this award provides opportunities for continued learning for in-service counselors already working in the school system. Brown explained that George Mason’s graduate certificate program in Counseling will provide retraining for approximately 21 counselors now employed in the Manassas City Public Schools division. Upon completing the graduate certificate in Counseling, these in-service counselors will have broader clinical training that will enable them to deliver high-quality mental health services to students, and they will be eligible for licensure in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In her other comments, Brown discussed what she referred to as the international element or global need for the work that will be conducted under this grant. She stated, “We have been focused for a long time nationally on building high-quality comprehensive school mental health programming. In addition to tier two support, our grant considers the interprofessional relationships, communications, and referral processes that are required to bridge the support of mental health across the different school environments where you find students.”

Brown continued, “We need our school counselors to be highly trained and competent. in the work that they are doing. But if they are not communicating with the teachers who see those students in their classrooms every day, it is difficult to achieve consistency of care. Teachers can provide fundamental support in achieving that consistency of care. This grant speaks to the integrated and comprehensive systems approach that is focused on building multidisciplinary teams in schools to broker those multi-tiered systems of support.” Brown added that these multidisciplinary teams could include representation of different disciplines across the school environment including educators, school psychologists, social workers, and others involved in providing mental health services.

Faculty team members addressed how the partnership between George Mason, NOVA, and Manassas City Public Schools came to fruition under this training initiative. Steen commented, “The grant specifically called for training programs that could increase the number of practitioners to work in high-need schools with large populations of students from underrepresented or lower income backgrounds. Manassas City Public Schools met both thresholds. The funding provided under this grant will help us prepare school counselors who are committed to going into this type of school community to work with students and families not only while they matriculate through our program, but to continue working in these schools after they graduate – whether that is in Manassas City or another high-need school district.”

George Mason’s Early Identification Program (EIP) and NOVA serve a significant population of college-bound first-generation and minoritized students who wish to continue their education at a four-year university such as George Mason. Through collaboration with these partners, faculty members on the team are considering how to structure pathways that will lead to a career in school counseling, ideally in a high-need school district. Working in tandem with the EIP leadership, the research team will be exploring a recruitment plan during the upcoming year for its first cohort of students for training under this grant program.

Brown states, “Our hope is that eventually these students will work in high-need school districts such as Manassas City Schools or other high-need LEAs throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. That is our long-term goal. At the same time, there is an opportunity to build capacity and retention for high-quality mental health services in Manassas. Another goal is the building of a more diversified school counselor workforce — through our training in this grant.” In other partnership activities, faculty are working closely with NOVA representatives in developing an accelerated degree pathway for eligible NOVA students which would allow them to matriculate into a bachelor’s and then a master’s program in Counseling at George Mason. Hines stated, “to assist with sustainability of this project, we must create multiple pathways to the counseling profession such as developing bachelor’s to accelerated master’s degree program. We include NOVA and EIP students so they can start as early as their junior year in advancing through the school counseling program.”

In all, this project will train 60 mental health service providers. In total, approximately 30 pre-service counselors and 30 in-service counselors currently working in Manassas City Public Schools will receive certification required for full Virginia licensure. Students (pre-service counselors) recruited to participate in this training initiative will complete their required practicum and internship onsite at one of Manassas City’s nine public schools. This will result in an influx of much-needed mental health services support at these schools. During their training, participants who include both pre-service and in-service counselors will receive some financial and professional incentives from the funds provided under the grant. Upon completion of program requirements, individuals may receive a signing bonus or retention payment if they commit to work in a Manassas City public school or another high-need school in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Should counseling positions within the Manassas City school district fill to capacity, the research team is confident that graduates will be able to find similar positions at one of the twenty Region IV school divisions that partner with George Mason University through the Educational Research Alliance of Northern Virginia, a research-practice partnership forum, especially if they need additional mental health services professionals and supports.

The mission of George Mason’s Counseling program aligns strongly with the focus of the U.S. Department of Education grant. This is demonstrated by the Counseling program being named the recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Counseling Program Award by the Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association. The bestowment of this award recognizes the Counseling program’s core values of social justice, multiculturalism, internationalism, advocacy, and leadership that is reflected in their curriculum and training program. Steen shared his thoughts on how the training initiative funded by this grant fits with the vision of the Counseling program. “One priority of the grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education,” he stated, “was to determine if a higher education partnership was committed to and capable of preparing students from underrepresented backgrounds to work in these communities that are marginalized. We are well situated to meet this requirement and deliver this training centered around social justice. We do not need to add more content to our programming to do this work because we have already been doing it. This grant provides us with the resources to help a specific community, namely Manassas City Public Schools, where we can make a real difference in the lives of the students and families there. And that brings us joy.”

Steen is also hopeful that this project will prepare school counselors to take on leadership roles in supervising their peers in the school community. School counselors are often supervised by the school principal, with the supervision usually focused on administrative tasks unrelated to the core clinical work that school counselors do. Steen suggests that the dynamic nature of K-12 public schools coupled with the social and cultural shifts taking place within an often-divisive political environment can result in a school climate that may not always be conducive to student learning. This may create formidable challenges in meeting the mental health needs of students. For these and other reasons, he believes that peer supervision is essential in providing school counselors with the support and professional development needed for them to perform effectively in our public schools. “In sum,” Steen stated, “we desire to build on the great work already established within the Manassas City Public Schools community.”

Please join the College of Education and Human Development community in congratulating Sam Steen, Elizabeth Levine Brown, and Erik M. Hines for their major accomplishment in being selected for this U.S. Department of Education grant, the first and largest of its kind to be awarded to an institution of higher education in Northern Virginia. Through the resources provided under this grant, the work of our faculty in collaboration with their project partners will help close the gap in student access to comprehensive mental health services delivered by school counselors in the Manassas City Public Schools.