Evaluation of expanded school mental health programs

Expanded school mental health programs provide a full range of mental healt h services (assessment, treatment, case management, prevention) to youth in regular and special education, and typically involve close collaboration b etween schools and community agencies. A major challenge for these programs is documenting that provided services are of high quality and leading to e nhanced outcomes for the youth and schools served by them. Dimensions of sc hool mental health evaluations and a step-by-step process for conducting th em are presented, using the example of a well established program in Baltim ore. Challenges to such evaluation and strategies for overcoming challenges are also presented.