BIBB COUNTY, Ga. — It's hard for students to have success if they're dealing with stress, depression or other mental health problems.
The Bibb County School District is getting a big boost to help hire more social workers, therapists and psychologists to support students going through challenges. A grant from the U.S. Department of Education will bring $2.69 million to the school district over the next five years for a total of $12.848 million.
Myesheia Yarber is the only school counselor at Burdell-Hunt Elementary School. She said she's making it work, but it would be nice to have more mental health professionals in the district for students going through tough times.
"School counselors, things that we deal with, some of the mental health issues that we're seeing in schools is beyond the scope of what we're trained for,” Yarber said. “So, the expansion of mental health services in schools will help with our students and it will help us to stabilize them."
Hiring more professionals is what Assistant Superintendent of Student Affairs Jamie Cassady said the district is going to do.
"We always talk about educating the whole child and this will help us to provide additional resources for that in the form of additional social workers, psychologists as well as therapists," he said.
Cassady said that money will allow them to hire more professionals and offer incentives to keep the ones they have.
"What we can do is we can provide additional professional development for those individuals,” he said. “In this particular grant, there are bonuses that's written into the grant as well."
The first grant comes in January 2025. Yarber is hopeful it will make a difference.
"I'm hoping that the mental health grant will give us more support and where parents don't have to take their child outside to receive services - they can receive the services here," she said.
Cassady said the district plans to hire about 10 new mental health providers with the grant.