An Interview with John Crocker, MEd (Part Three)

Providing high-quality mental health care in schools requires skilled clinicians, strong systems, and a clear commitment to evidence-based practice that comes from the top down. When schools invest in comprehensive approaches to mental health, they create the conditions for early intervention, improved access to care, and long-term benefits for students and families.

In the final installment of this three-part series, we conclude our conversation with John Crocker, MEd, an experienced school mental health leader who reflects on lessons learned from years of system-building, evaluation, and continuous improvement. This discussion focuses on the challenges school districts face as they move from identifying needs to delivering effective care at scale, and why training, supervision, and data-driven decision-making are essential to disrupting current trends in youth mental health.

A photo of John Crocker, MEd

What are some challenges or opportunities for improving school-based mental health services in the US?

John Crocker, MEd: One major challenge is the lack of clinical supervision and leadership in schools. You often have well-meaning leaders who don’t have the clinical expertise needed to oversee mental health staff or build a comprehensive system. Those leaders are important—but you also need clinicians in leadership roles who can supervise staff, provide coaching and professional development, and tailor systems to meet the needs of the population.

Staffing models are another issue. Historically, school mental health staff have been under-leveraged and asked to do work that isn’t aligned with their training or professional standards. These are highly trained clinicians. Putting them in front of students to do evidence-based therapeutic work improves outcomes in a way that lunch duty or hallway monitoring simply doesn’t.

We need to support mental health staff in working at the upper limits of their licensure and ensure they’re doing the work they’re trained to do.

Funding is also a challenge. We need sustained investment—not just in staff and training, but in leadership and infrastructure. Hiring a counselor on a one-year grant and then letting the position disappear isn’t a value-add. Similarly, adding mental health staff to a district that doesn’t know how to leverage them effectively isn’t enough. You have to build the system that allows those staff to succeed—and that often requires clinical leadership. Finally, accountability metrics are a missing piece. Right now, there’s very little accountability in school mental health. If we don’t measure what we care about, we can’t hold systems accountable for delivering on their commitments. This work shouldn’t be optional. We need to require and support high-quality mental health care for kids and families.

Read part one and part two of the series.

Read More on CBT for Youth: