The purpose of this special series is to highlight how the measurement of integrity, both treatment integrity and integrity for implementation strategies, can support intervention development, evaluation, and implementation research. The seven papers and one commentary in this special series illustrate how diverse measurement approaches are used…

Despite increasing reliance on licensed practical nurses (LPNs) to provide health services in schools, we do not know whether this is a cost-effective prevention strategy against student absenteeism. Therefore, we evaluated the costs and effectiveness of an LPN-based school nursing program for improving attendance and chronic absenteeism at a…

Schools offer an advantageous setting for prevention, early identification, and treatment of mental health problems for youth. However, school mental health (SMH) services are typically not based on evidence for effectiveness, nor are they efficiently delivered, with SMH practitioners (SMHPs) able to only treat a small number of students in need.…

Numerous evidence-based programs (EBPs) exist for delivery in schools to promote youth mental health outcomes. However, school systems often lack the internal infrastructure to support the effective implementation and sustainment of EBPs when external supports are withdrawn, resulting in notable attenuation in the benefits in youth clinical…

Few studies have examined social anxiety in Black American adolescents, despite the role of unique sociocultural factors and lower rates of mental health service use in this population. The goal of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions and experience of social anxiety, as well as attitudes toward help-seeking and school-based…

Background: Strategic implementation leadership is a critical determinant of successful implementation, hypothesized to create a more supportive implementation climate conducive to the adoption and use of evidence-based practices. Implementation leadership behaviors may vary significantly across contexts, necessitating studies that examine the…

Background: Implementation strategies used to enhance the implementation of interventions during efficacy and effectiveness studies are rarely reported. Tracking and reporting implementation strategies during these phases has potential to improve future research studies and real-world implementation. We present an exemplar of how this might be…

Purpose of review: School-based health centers (SBHCs) primarily serve underserved students and families through removing barriers to care. The number of SBHCs have increased dramatically with investments from state- and federal-funding programs, including expanded funding from the American Rescue Plan. This article reviews findings on the…

The child mental health crisis resulted in US legislative expansions of funding eligibility and access to clinical interventions in schools. In tandem with the movement to decentralize mental healthcare, we argue that schools are well-positioned to adopt place-based health care models. We describe this framework while summarizing the evidence of…

The current study examined predictors of outcomes across two school clinician-delivered treatments (i.e., treatment as usual [TAU] or modular cognitive-behavioral therapy [M-CBT]) for youth with anxiety disorders. Predictors reflected two broad domains -- therapist factors (i.e., education, years of experience, therapeutic orientation, work…

Educational researchers and school-based practitioners are increasingly infusing Motivational Interviewing (MI) into new and existing intervention protocols to provide support to students, parents, teachers, and school administrators. To date, however, the majority of the research in this area has focused on feasibility of implementation rather…

Schools, like other service sectors, are confronted with an implementation gap, with the slow adoption and uneven implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP) as part of routine service delivery, undermining efforts to promote better youth behavioral health outcomes. Implementation researchers have undertaken systematic efforts to publish…

The current study compared the effectiveness of a school-clinician administered cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) to treatment as usual (TAU) at post-treatment (i.e., after 12 weeks) and at a 1 year follow-up. Sixty-two school-based clinicians (37 in CBT; 25 in TAU) and 216 students (148 students in CBT; 68 in TAU) participated. Students were…

Schools have long partnered with local organizations to support access to essential services like food, housing, or mental and physical health. Schools can build on wrap-around school models by helping students and families intentionally cultivate community relationships, skills, and knowledge, thus putting students on a path toward long-term…

Despite great advancements in the development of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for youth mental health problems, few EBTs have been adopted by or successfully implemented in schools. This is of concern, as schools are the most common entry point for youth mental health services. Modular psychotherapies may be a particularly good fit for the…