The School Mental Health Assessment, Research, & Training (SMART) Center directed by Aaron Lyon recently received two grants from the Institute of Education Sciences, the primary research funding arm of the US Department of Education. Totaling $4.7M, these awards account for 1/6th of the total awards given this year under the IES “Social and Behavioral Context for Academic Learning” topic area, further establishing the SMART Center as an influential leader in school-based behavioral health research and implementation.

The Organizational Assessment for Strategic Implementation in Schools (OASIS): A Measurement Suite to Support Educator Adoption of Evidence-Based Practices project (Aaron Lyon PI) is using implementation science to develop and test a suite of measures in elementary schools in Ohio and Washington that will provide school and district leaders with information regarding how best to support and sustain the use of evidence-based practices designed to prevent emotional and behavioral problems among students.

The Efficacy of a Brief Intervention Strategy for School Mental Health Clinicians (BRISC) project (Eric Bruns PI, Elizabeth McCauley co-PI) will evaluate the impact of an initial assessment, engagement, triage, and brief intervention strategy on mental health and academic outcomes of high-school students in 13 school districts in Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington. Previous studies showed that BRISC improved clinicians’ capacity to efficiently apply evidence-based practices and improved students’ functioning, emotional symptoms, and coping skills.