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United Independent School District’s focus on student mental health was shared with other Texas school districts at this year’s Texas Association of School Boards Summer Leadership Institute.
Licensed Specialists in School Psychology in Dr. Linda J. Garza and Ileana J. Moreno, along with UISD Board of Trustees Vice President Aliza Flores Oliveros, gave a presentation entitled “21st Century Leadership: Why Mental Health Matters.”
This presentation concentrated on the importance of addressing students’ mental health to better enable learning. Garza and Moreno also developed a school-based mental health needs assessment that school boards can utilize to assess their district’s current mental health services.
Garza also presented a session entitled “Meeting the Needs of Special Education through Counseling as a Related Service” in which she explained federal requirements for counseling special education students, as well as numerous studies that have shown that school counseling is associated with positive outcomes.
These presentations emphasized to school district leaders from across the state that mental health needs have to be prioritized in schools and the importance of providing counseling services to special education students.
For additional information on mental health, please visit the UISD Mental Health webpage at uisd.net/mentalhealth.