Rocklin Unified approves contract for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding

The Rocklin Unified School District Board approved the contract for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding of $115,898 at its Dec. 14 meeting. The school district applied for this grant through the city of Rocklin in June, according to district officials. The American Rescue Plan Act was passed in 2021 to help families, businesses and governmental agencies with resources needed to weather the economic crisis and accelerate the recovery caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants are awarded for numerous programs. The Rocklin Unified School District Board grant focuses on three areas. The first area that the grant will be used for is to "increase mental health specialist contracts through Placer County Office of Education for foster, homeless and socio-economically disadvantaged students." Socio-economically disadvantaged students are the "highest need" for mental health services, according to School Programs and Accountability director Hannah Anderson. The second area that the grant funding will be used for is to "increase mental health specialist contracts through Wellness Together for high school students with significant mental health needs. The third area is to provide services through a partnership with Care Solace to all Rocklin Unified School District Board students, their families and all school district employees." This grant will go toward improving existing mental health outreach within the Rocklin Unified School District, according to Anderson. They already have outreach services from Wellness Together, which provides mental-health services to local schools. The grant will also go toward a new partnership with Care Solace. Care Solace helps with mental-health coordination in schools. "It's connecting our students with access to mental health services," Anderson said about Care Solace. "Any of our students' family members also have access. All of our staff members and all of our staff members' families have access, so it's an incredible service that is utilized with many school districts throughout the state and in our local region and we're excited to begin a partnership with them this year." The contract for this partnership is still pending. "This is our community working together," School District Vice-President Tiffany Saathoff said at the meeting. "I think this is a beautiful model to show real needs can be met when our schools and our city staff are working together." Saathoff also highlighted that the "priority" the city has to help the district and students "doesn't happen in a lot of cities and so it's a beautiful opportunity for us to say 'let's meet our needs here locally.'"