REDWOOD CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING PROGRAM - YEAR 1 IMPLEMENTATION STUDY - Research Brief - June 2022

Oct 15, 2026

Research brief dated June 2022 describing the Year 1 implementation study of the Redwood City School District Mental Health Counseling Program. The study, conducted during October 2021–May 2022 as part of a long-term partnership between Stanford University and RCSD, examines the role and contributions of district mental health counselors and identifies opportunities for improvement. It frames the program within MTSS, analyzing early strengths and challenges through interviews, participant observations, and district-produced documents.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

District context

Role of district mental health counselors

System of support and alignment

research brief June 2022 REDWOOD CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING PROGRAM: YEAR 1 IMPLEMENTATION STUDY Kristin Geiser, Elena Elliott, Derric Heck, and Kristen Jackson [The counselor’s] presence here has been invaluable this year. There is no way to quantify it. I could try. But she's the right person in the right place at the right time. And I've told her this a million times this year. This service has made such a tremendous difference in the amount of support that we can give, not only the students, but the staff and the parents. -MTSS Coordinator INTRODUCTION The incidence of mental health challenges among youth, already of national concern in recent years, has increased at an accelerated rate during the COVID-19 pandemic , prompting an advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General, an action reserved for “significant public health challenges that need the nation’s immediate awareness and action.”i Data show mental health challenges impact youth across all demographics, yet they also highlight that there are some whose vulnerability , due to a number of social, economic, and environmental factors, may be disproportionately elevated , such as those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) and/or Black, Indigenous, or persons of color (BIPOC) . ii How systems respond to the mental health challenges of youth, including those most vulnerable, will have lasting impacts on communities. Redwood City School District (RCSD) has a long history of attending to the needs of its students and their families , and it has responded to this moment of crisis by setting a goal that by June 2024, every student will receive “appropriate social-emotional supports designed to meet their needs.”iii The plan for achieving this goal includes placing a full-time, district-employed, licensed clinical mental health counselor in each of its twelve schools for the 2021–22 and 2022–23 academic years, and dedicating a portion of one counseling position to the role of “lead counselor”responsible for overseeing program design, development, and implementation. The mental health counseling program is part of a broader initiative known as the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) , a comprehensive framework for creating a coordinated system of universal (Tier 1), supplemental (Tier 2), and intensive (Tier 3) supports that promote students’ academic, behavioral, and social-emotional growth and development. This implementation study, conducted as part of a long-term partnership between Stanford University and RCSD,iv aims to describe the role and contribution of RCSD’s mental health counselors and identify opportunities for improvement as the program moves into its second year of implementation. With these goals in mind, our study is designed to address three questions: 1. What is the role of RCSD’s school-based mental health counselors? 2. What are early indicators of the counseling program’s strengths and challenges? 3. What conditions help and hinder the work of mental health counselors? To answer these questions, we conducted a qualitative implementation study from October 2021– May 2022 focusing on data collected via 23 interviews with district and site administrators, teachers, MTSS coordinators, community school coordinators, and mental health counselors; 51 participant observations of meetings related to the counseling program and student services more broadly in which school and district staff, board members, and parents participated; and more than 100 district-produced program documents related to MTSS and/or the counseling program. This research brief summarizes key findings and identifies strategic opportunities not only for improving the counseling program, but for leveraging the program to advance a district-wide, coordinated system of support that effectively promotes mental health and wellbeing.v DISTRICT CONTEXT RCSD’s twelve schools serve a diverse popu

FAQs

What is the purpose of the Year 1 implementation study?

To describe the role and contribution of RCSD’s mental health counselors and identify opportunities for improvement as the program enters its second implementation year.

How does the brief frame the program’s work?

It positions the counseling program within the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), emphasizing coordinated universal, supplemental, and intensive supports for students’ academic, behavioral, and social-emotional growth.

What methods were used to conduct the study?

A qualitative implementation design used 23 interviews, 51 participant observations of meetings related to counseling and student services, and more than 100 district-produced program documents.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Sophia Brooks