School Response Teams

The Founding’s School Response Teams help to prevent crises by partnering with teachers and administrators to help them know what to look for, how to respond, and what services are available in the community that support mental health.

In many schools, a lack of relevant resources and training means that mental health concerns among students frequently go unnoticed or unaddressed until they rise to the level of crisis. The Foundling’s School Response Teams works to enhance the resources available to schools to address mental health needs before they develop into crisis situations. The program operates in Staten Island and Queens and equips New York City public middle schools with the capacity to respond to their students’ mental health problems through staff training and consultation, and provides services to students through linkages to community-based resources, direct crisis intervention, and prevention activities.