Partnerships
No school district can do this alone. Boston doesn't try to.
CBHM was built with a hospital and a university at the table from day one. Today our partnerships span Boston's medical centers, its graduate programs, a citywide collaborative of behavioral health providers, and districts across the country.
Hospital Partner
Boston Children's Hospital
The Boston Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships (BCHNP) program has partnered with CBHM since its start, funding capacity-building for social emotional learning and universal screening and bringing clinical, early intervention, and prevention services to BPS schools.
Sustained investment from Boston Children's Hospital since 2010 has given Behavioral Health Services the foundation to grow, innovate, and serve the BPS community. In 2025–26 the hospital's CBHM grant supported professional development for central office staff and school psychologists, partial funding of the BIMAS-2 universal screening tool, now available to all BPS schools, research and program evaluation, data-driven MTSS implementation, and systematic year-end reporting.
For more than 16 years, BCHNP has promoted the social, emotional, and behavioral health of diverse youth and families through high quality, culturally relevant clinical care, education, and advocacy in Boston's schools and community health centers.
Since 2002, BCHNP's School-Based Program has brought comprehensive, family-centered behavioral health services aligned with a multi-tiered framework to BPS. In a single school year the program has delivered clinical services, group therapy, case management, and school-wide social emotional learning to over 1,000 students across elementary, K-8, middle, and high schools.
Through the Training and Access Project (TAP), BCHNP brings professional development workshops and individualized consultation to school-based behavioral health teams, and its Break Free from Depression curriculum is used in many CBHM high schools.
Programs
Builds sustainable systems, processes, and resources to address the social, emotional, and behavioral needs in schools.
A four-module curriculum that increases awareness of adolescent depression, designed for high school classrooms.
University Partner
University of Massachusetts Boston
UMass Boston's School Psychology program trains specialist and doctoral school psychologists, and its faculty and students have contributed enormously to the capacity and expertise within BPS.
The University of Massachusetts Boston has a mission grounded in urban and global engagement. Many BPS students go on to become UMB students, and many UMB students intersect with BPS as educators and parents.
Through the partnership with CBHM, UMB faculty provide in-kind trainings on evidence-based practices in school-based mental health, and students in both the Ed.S. and Ph.D. programs complete practica and internships in BPS, where they experience the full expanded role of school psychology in action.
University Partner
Boston University
BU's Wheelock College of Education and Human Development has supported the district's mental health collaborative, provided training and consultation, and partnered on research, most recently helping secure a federal grant to address mental health workforce shortages.
Boston University holds the belief that education and positive development are the most powerful tools for promoting equity and social justice. BU and Wheelock have been integral partners to Behavioral Health Services for several years, supporting the Boston School-Based Behavioral Health Collaborative and engaging in joint research projects.
Most recently, BU worked with the district to secure the federal Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant that funds Project PROVIDE.
University Partners
Where Boston's school psychologists train
Faculty from these programs serve on our research committee, and their students complete practica and internships in BPS schools.
BSBBHC
Boston School-Based Behavioral Health Collaborative
Working in partnership with the Boston Public Schools, the Collaborative is a collective of state, city, and community-based organizations committed to promoting the behavioral health, wellbeing, and academic success of students through best practices in therapeutic service delivery, prevention programming, advocacy, training, systems integration, family engagement, and collaboration. It is dedicated to ensuring equitable access to high quality, culturally competent school-based behavioral health services for all students in the Boston Public Schools.
On the first Monday of each month, representatives from more than 20 community organizations convene to discuss current needs in behavioral health, establish best practices, and plan professional development. The Collaborative's Standards of Practice were revised by its members in 2019.
Annual reports & resources
2026 BSBBHC Annual Conference
- Friday, January 2, 20268:00 AM – 3:30 PM
- Boston UniversityBoston University, Wheelock Family Theatre (Fenway Campus), 180 Riverway, Boston, MA 02215
- Keynote: Dr. Byron McClureFree for all BPS mental health providers, including community partners.
Keynote by Dr. Byron McClure. More than 200 mental and behavioral health practitioners, including university trainees, attended in 2025–26, with in-kind support from Boston University. Details for the next conference will be posted here when they are confirmed.
National Partnerships
Join the movement to create safe, supportive schools
CBHM continues to reach out to partners across the nation. Districts, universities, and organizations from coast to coast have visited, consulted, and collaborated with Boston to build their own comprehensive behavioral health systems.
If your district or organization would like to learn from Boston's experience, get in touch.
