Schools in North Carolina's Iredell and Statesville counties secured a $17 million grant from the Education Department to fund mental health services for students, NBC affiliate WCNC reported Jan. 4.
The Iredell-Statesville school district plans to use the grant to add 22 clinical therapists to serve in its schools for five years, according to WCNC.
Currently, the district has 10 therapists to serve more than 170 students and reportedly received 20 crisis calls in the last 30 days.
The program will facilitate monthly family sessions to help students at home and school, the news station reported.
"Something that we wrote into this grant is a crisis worker and having a crisis line, like a cellphone you can call, and our expectation is that within one hour a clinician will be on a school campus to help assess that student and make it safe," Jessica Smith, the district's student support services program director, told WCNC.