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.
ChAMPS is an emergency service for children and teens ages 6-17 who are having mental or behavioral crises. Under D.C.’s budget proposal, the program would be shuttered, part of a broader slate of cuts that would also phase outthe city’s contracts with a network of community-based organizations providing clinicians to D.C. schools.
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More than 150 parents, educators and behavioral health professionals from over 60 D.C. schools, as well as 45 local organizations, signed a letter last month decrying the proposed changes.
“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.
Strengthening Families Through Behavioral Health Coalition
Children’s Law Center co-leads the Strengthening Families Through Behavioral Health Coalition, which works to ensure that all DC students, children, youth, and families have timely access to high-quality, consistent, affordable, and culturally responsive care that meets their needs and enables them to thrive.