Students at one of the largest high school districts in New Jersey are beginning the school year without long-standing mental health services amid deep concern and outrage from school staff, parents and former students.

Last month, the school board representing Hunterdon Central Regional High School voted 4-3 not to renew the school’s contract with CarePlus NJ, a Paramus-based nonprofit that has provided specialized behavioral health services to the school for the past five years.

The high school has also not renewed its contract with Hunterdon Behavioral Health because of contractual differences. The Flemington-based organization provided free school-based youth services to students at Hunterdon Central Regional High School for over 30 years.

NJ Spotlight News’ mental health writer Bobby Brier discusses how Hunterdon Central plans to fill the void in services, what’s behind the cuts at the school and how other schools across the state are addressing student mental health as a new school year begins. This interview has been excerpted and lightly edited.

Briana Vannozzi, anchor: Bobby, it’s good to see you. Thanks for coming in studio. So, why did the board make this decision and why now?

Bobby Brier: When we look at this August 18th board meeting, you know, some of the school board members who voted in favor of ending this contract with CarePlus New Jersey really cited cost. What was on the table was a contract with that behavioral health service to essentially provide more intense mental health support to students, maybe students who are struggling with, say, suicidal ideation or suicidality.

But right now, that contract, it was looking at just shy of $280,000. It’s interesting because they’ve had this service in place for about five years. So there was a lot of outrage and kind of confusion overall from parents and students saying, we know this has a positive track record for student mental health kind of coming post-pandemic, we’re in the middle still of what many experts have called a youth mental health crisis. So that was the first part of it.

BV: Is cost the full picture, though? Was there reasoning from the board that it’s not being utilized or that students are getting these services elsewhere? I mean, what’s the full scope of this?

BB: Cost was that first part. Essentially when they continued to give their explanation, they said, you know, we already have essentially enough mental health services, we have student counselors and student assistance counselors that could provide these services. But when I talked to parents and some former school officials about this, they said that this is not the level of support that is needed for some students that need more intense mental health support, that may be struggling with long-term anxiety and depression kind of things that are more than just kind of those first-day-of-school jitters, so this is something that’s way deeper than what we’re seeing.

BV: It seemed like from your reporting that the superintendent was stunned and like maybe there’s an internal communications issue here about just how badly needed this is.

BB: That’s right. You know, the superintendent there essentially said that she was surprised by the board’s decision and they’re disappointed really in this. But she also, throughout the course of that meeting, pointed to the fact that the school couldn’t come to a contractual agreement with Hunterdon Behavioral Health. That’s their school-based youth service provider, a separate mental health service from what CarePlus provided, that had been providing services for over 30 years to the school.

When you slash those two programs and students are coming back on this first day of school, parents and students are really saying, what are we really left with here given the history of students dying by suicide in the school? We know that happened in 2017 and 2019 as well as a number of other times.

So it’s really puzzling. And it’s coming at a time when we’re seeing other high schools really ramp up their mental health services. So it’s interesting, to say the least.

BV: This district has not been immune to these issues by any means. As you just mentioned, this is something that they’ve really been at the forefront [of] and in terms of needing to have a system in place and putting one in place. What else is there then? Without CarePlus, without the Hunterdon Behavioral Health, is there anything that can replace it or at least mirror what they had?

BB: You know, at the time the superintendent mentioned that they’re going to try to contract with outside mental health service providers, essentially on an as-needed basis. But they also said with the dropping of the school-based youth services program through Hunterdon, now they’re eligible for the state’s NJ4S model.

BV: What is that?

BB: That’s essentially aimed to trying to provide more mental health services to more students throughout the state. That’s a program that offers different tiers of support to students. So that would be school assemblies looking at anti-bullying prevention but if students need a higher level of tier support, they would have to fill out an application and eventually be connected with a mental health services provider while that’s available.

There are some school districts that are really partnering with outside contractors, such as Effective School Solutions, to provide some more of those higher tiers of support. There’s a wide array that we’re seeing right now of ways to address mental health services. But this is an interesting development out of Hunterdon Central, given what we know.

BV: How are other school districts handling this? I mean, a lot of folks, a lot of districts are dealing with budget issues with less state aid, with less federal aid that is then trickled down. What are we seeing elsewhere? Because you’ve covered this quite a bit in other districts.

BB: Right. You know, many schools are partnering with places like Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care or something like Effective School Solutions … mental health providers that can provide these additional tiers of support. I spoke to the CEO of Effective School Solutions who said that they’re providing these services to 60 school districts for this upcoming school year.

It’s interesting, given the fact of what we know about suicidality in the state, the rise of mental health issues and really how many populations of young people, including LGBTQ young people, are feeling pressure right now, are feeling anxiety and depression. As we know, over the summer, the federal government cut the “Press 3” options for the 988 line for many young people.

BV: What’s the bigger picture here? I mean, you mentioned it in terms of just how much this problem has grown, the lack of access for some students, especially trans and LGBTQ students. What’s the bigger picture about what this might mean for these kids who have relied on a program that’s not going to be there now as they get back to school?

BB: You know, for students that can afford it and for families that can afford it, it would probably mean they’d have to go outside of the school to find those additional mental health services. But for students that can’t afford it, many are going to be essentially left to their own devices to figure this out. As we know, students are often served best, from what many school officials have said, when they have the ability to access those mental health services in the school or during the school hours.

Everybody’s schedule seems to be packed these days. So that idea of being able to get that support while you’re in the school building is mostly the most effective way to approach this. It’s also something that helps to reduce that stigma among students — you know, if you’re able to … go to a mental health provider but not have to miss class because of it, you’re able to keep up with your schoolwork.

Those are the kind of things that we may see. We also may see more of an issue with … emergency rooms in terms of a lot of hospitals having to deal with the crisis of if a school or a contractor cannot deal with more intense mental health issues, they may then have to end up sending a student to the emergency room. So there could be many ripple effects here that we may not see yet.