UM partners with SKC to train more school psychologists

Anisa Goforth, a psychology professor at the University of Montana, dreamed for a decade about increasing school-based mental health service across Big Sky Country – especially for tribal schools.

That dream just took a giant step toward reality. Goforth and her UM partners recently earned a $3.75 million Mental Health Professional Demonstration Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

The award will fund her dream, the RAISE Initiative, designed to increase the number and diversity of fully qualified school psychologists across Montana’s vast rural and tribal landscapes. (RAISE stands for Rural and Indigenous School-based mental health and Empowerment.)

UM’s partners in the effort include Salish Kootenai College and high-need school districts on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

 “Overall, we expect this project to increase capacity for over 20,000 K-12 students across the state,” Goforth said. “There is just such a need with so many students struggling with behavioral issues, anxiety, thoughts of suicide and their mental health in general.

“The number of fully qualified Indigenous school psychologists also is extremely low, and we want to create awareness among Native students so they are more likely to pursue this career path,” she added.

Goforth’s campus partners on the project include psychology faculty members Greg Machek and Jacqueline Brown.

Goforth directs UM’s school psychology graduate student training programs. She said the University now graduates about six students each year from its Specialist in School Psychology Program, and the RAISE Initiative is poised to generate 27 graduates who will serve high-needs schools across the state.

The school psychology specialist program requires three years of graduate school coursework and clinical experiences. The first two years consist of full-time coursework. During the third year, students complete a one-year internship in a school setting. Students also must pass a written comprehensive exam at the end of their second year on campus.

Goforth said the initiative will work with the tribal college in Pablo to develop an internship focused on training more than 30 SKC students in school-based mental health. The program also will collaborate with the UM-based Montana Digital Academy to educate 250 high school students.

She said students will be trained in culturally responsive and inclusive evidence-based practices targeted to improve mental health, reduce suicide rates, promote grief treatment, and conduct crisis assessment and intervention.

Goforth said the RAISE Initiative will provide full tuition and a stipend for three cohorts of students admitted to the school psychology specialist program at UM. The deadline to apply for the first cohort is Dec. 1, and those students will start during fall semester 2025.

UM’s school psychology program recently earned the highest level of approval from the National Association of School Psychologists. Goforth said 82% of graduates stay in Montana after graduation, and that figure should hit 100% for students funded by the RAISE Initiative, which requires students to stay in Big Sky Country at least two years after they graduate.

The ultimate goal – Goforth’s dream – is to have 27 additional fully licensed school psychologists boosting student mental health in rural and tribal schools across Montana in the coming years.

“If this works the way we intend,” she said, “we will support Indigenous communities through the strengths of their own culture and values to train their next generation of school psychologists.”