‘Wellness without silos’: Los Angeles Unified board member introduces resolution to reshape student mental health support

LAUSD school board member Karla Griego envisions student wellness outside of “silos.”

Credit: Courtesy of Karla Griego

As school communities in the Los Angeles Unified School District grapple with immigration raids and economic instability, board member Karla Griego wants more reliable mental health support for students and families.

Last month, Griego introduced a resolution to the LAUSD board that she says would expand student wellness efforts beyond the “silo” of a singular, overworked mental health worker. 

“When you don’t have things coordinated, that’s when you’re exhausted and constantly dealing with crisis after crisis,” Griego, who represents LAUSD Board District 5 in southeast Los Angeles, told EdSource. 

According to the district, school mental health workers have seen a marked increase in students struggling with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and eating disorders, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has outpaced the district’s capacity to help students.

Earlier this year, the district projected a $191 million budget deficit for the 2027-28 school year. With that in mind, Griego’s resolution does not allocate new funds to hire mental health workers; instead, it repurposes existing staff to address students’ needs in a more coordinated effort. Griego spoke to EdSource about how small operational shifts could still lead to large positive outcomes for students.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Board member Griego, you introduced a new resolution titled Wellness Without Silos: Advancing Student Wellness Through Integrated School Culture and Wellness Teams and Expanded Professional Learning. What is your goal with this resolution?

The resolution brings all of the services and programs that we have in LAUSD together, coordinating all of those so that we can create a more holistically safe school. What that means to me is when you have various supports from other human beings that make you feel heard, make you feel seen and are trusted adults that you can go to. 

This doesn’t mean that there are no fights, and it doesn’t mean that there is no conflict. But what it does mean is that we have some systems in place that can support kids when these things do come up or prevent some of these things from escalating. 

A key proposal is the introduction of Integrated School Culture and Wellness Teams, a more collaborative approach to student wellness. What roles would comprise these teams, and how would they work with students?

The idea for Integrated School Culture and Wellness Teams came out of meeting with various schools where they have a strong team in place that supports kids holistically. These teams include the mental health personnel, if they have it, the campus aide, the supervision aide, the Black Student Achievement Plan counselor and the academic counselors. What we found is that when there’s a team created at a school that brings the people who work with students together, and consult with one another on the issues that are arising, be it a child has lost a family member due to death, violence or immigration, it really helps the school culture. 

Kids, when they feel safe, they will speak up and they will share information. That morning, the teams can create a plan as to where it is that they have to go to supervise during recess and lunch, or focus on the children that probably need a little bit more attention that day. We also want to have a classroom teacher who could be a liaison to teachers for things like policy changes or (wellness) strategies that the school wants to use. 

What did you learn from schools that use integrated wellness teams?

At one of the schools that I went to visit, what I was really impressed with is they have two psychiatric social workers, and they work with students all day. They go into classrooms and do lessons for the students. They do professional development for the teachers. When something happens in the classroom, the teacher will call them and say, ‘Hey, can I send this student to your office, because they’re having a hard time?’ The teams lend that direct support, and they do schoolwide events that promote mental health, but they also bring outside resources onto campus. 

Among them is substance use support. It was the psychiatric social workers, and because they also have interns, and the campus aids, the school climate advocate, the Black Student Achievement Plan administrator, they were able to have the capacity to be able to also make connections with outside agencies. They bring the family in, and the kids enter into a program. They come and do classes for eight weeks, and they learn public health awareness around the use of substances. 

We don’t have that everywhere. And I wish we did, because this is something that is addressing the direct needs of students at that school. 

Typically, schools receive mental health workers based on student head count. In the resolution, why do you propose to reshape that formula with a ‘trauma assessment system’ or student trauma index?

Right now, there’s the Student Equity Needs Index, which measures areas like gun violence and asthma rates, but it does not have things like school culture and stress and mental health and trauma. We want an assessment to be created so that you can determine the level of trauma that exists at a school, and then based on that, be able to send out the appropriate personnel to support that school. 

My district was particularly hit hard by ICE raids. I remember hearing a student who said that his mom would cry in the morning because she did not want him to go to school, because she was afraid that he would get caught up in an ICE raid. We also heard from students who quit going to school because they had to go to work for their family, because their family couldn’t work. 

School really was the only safe place. And so, more of a reason to have all resources in place at a school. 

How do you plan to bring in educators and administrators into integrated wellness teams?

We already have people doing four or five different jobs besides the job they get paid for. We want to support schools and not just tell them, ‘Look, this is the (new) structure of your team,’ but we also want to support them with professional development.

We can make the choice board of professional development have more topics on (wellness), so that there is always going to be something that they can choose, like social emotional learning, positive behavior, anti-bias, for our teachers as well as our classified staff.

The resolution is supported by at least two other board members and will come to a vote later this month. If passed, what is the next step to address student well-being?

Whenever you start putting things in writing, then it really holds us accountable to fund it. 

We need more mental health staff. I hear it from families, I hear it from students. But the reason why we do not call for any more investment is because we can’t at this moment in time. But I do think that by coordinating what we already have, we can definitely improve the school climate at a school. It can help kids feel like, ‘I belong here. I know people here who care about me, and if they see something that is dangerous, they know who to go to.’