Chair Lee on mental health continuum funding

In the Council's preliminary budget response, we called on the Mayor to add $64.6 million to DOE to invest in one-time funded educational programs such as Learning to Work, the Mental Health Continuum, please, I'm making a plug for that,

and Immigrant Family Engagement and Outreach.

We were pleased to see that two programs, Learning to Work and Early Childhood Education Outreach, were included in the plan.

And we are hoping that the majority of the one-time funded programs will be included in the future before we adopt.

During my time as chair of the Committee on Mental Health, I consistently fought for a mental health continuum to be added and baseline.

And this plan does not include the $5 million for this crucial program that brings together the DOE, H&H, and DOHMH to support students with significant mental health needs at 50 high-needs high schools.

Sorry, high-need schools.

The funding has continually been added for one year only, which creates instability, as we know, and uncertainty when it comes to planning around the program's future, despite its positive impact on students.

So today we urge the administration to invest in this program to support the mental health needs of students at high-need schools.

And now I will turn it over to our speaker for her opening statement.