$2.5M Medicaid grant will expand mental health services in Kansas schools

BY: MAYA SMITH Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Public Health and Environment and Kansas Medicaid have secured $2.5 million for school services, including funding for school mental health services, increased education and enrolling more families in Medicaid.

The goal of the grant, announced by KDHE on June 25, is to expand Medicaid health care for children and their families in schools, which now includes services specifically focused on mental health.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund spent two months applying for the grant and gathering support and research from other organizations in Kansas.

“This is truly a win for all schools in the state,” said David Jordan, president of the organization. “It will help modernize Kansas’s Medicaid program and give schools the opportunity to be reimbursed and offer new services to more children.”

Rather than providing potential resources to families, the grant ensures that students can access a wide range of health care services at their own school.

“This will help more children access health care services by using the services during the school day,” said KDHE spokesperson Jill Bronaugh. “After the school day, families may not have transportation, know where the services are, or have the support to access the services they need. When health care services are provided during the school day, it normalizes the experience for the child.”

Greenbush Education Service Center community support director Monica Murnan, a former state legislator, works directly with Medicaid billing for schools and special education. She said this grant will make delivering services to schools a more streamlined process.

“The grant sends a message to the state that says, ‘Let’s make it easier to provide these important services to kids,'” Murnan said. “For many kids, school is where they get their health care. If the school can support that with federal funding, it seems like a good use of our time to figure out how to do that.”

One of the focus points of the grant is expanding mental health services directly within schools.

“KDHE receives a number of grants to improve the health of Kansans, but I think this is the first of its kind,” Jordan said. “It would allow for direct therapy, care coordination and other services in schools by professionals.”

Before this grant, students could primarily receive speech or occupational therapy services as part of an individual education plan. Now, schools can target an even larger population of students while also expanding mental health options.

“It used to be that you put that in your IEP, and that was it,” Murnan said. “That was great for speech-language pathology, but it didn’t meet that need for behavioral health services. The vision of the federal government is to improve school safety and also behavioral health opportunities for children and families by using the school as a conduit.”

Murnan saw this as an opportunity for future expansion.

“School districts are struggling to provide social and emotional support to kids, (and) this will allow more services to be reimbursed,” Murnan said. “It’s kind of a right place, right time, right relationship model.”

While the grant will provide more money for school health care than ever before, Jordan believes it’s just a step in the right direction for Kansas health care.

“Our hope is that Kansas can leverage federal grants and bring dollars back to improve the health of Kansans,” Jordan said. “And improve our Medicaid program so that we can better support our most vulnerable Kansans and improve health.”