2024 advocacy piece

9 New Jersey’s Children and Youth Are Worthy of Full Investment in School-based Programs SCHOOL BASED YOUTH SERVICES PROGRAMS (SBYSPs) NJ STATEWIDE STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES (NJ4S) One way New Jersey can address the urgency of the youth mental health crisis is to sustain, strengthen and expand the highly successful and valuable School Based Youth Services Program (SBYSP) and other School Linked Services programs. These in-school programs are the epitome of meeting youth “where they are” with prevention, treatment and crisis services. In FY2022, the Legislature increased the Office of School Linked Services (OSLS) budget line by $5 million. Although that budget line was increased by the same amount in the Governor’s FY2023 budget, those funds were disbursed elsewhere. The NJ Statewide Student Support Services (NJ4S) model is a statewide three-tiered prevention and crisis services program. It was implemented in 2023 with a $43 million budget. This funding supported startup costs, such as advertising positions and IT hardware and software, as well as the wages of the 335 statewide positions that were filled over several months. The program serves not only schools, but also communities, with prevention programming as well as crisis intervention and brief treatment. NJ4S Despite a FY2023 legislative budget add-on of $1 million, School Linked Services programs were left with a $4 million decrease for that year. In FY2024, SBYSPs did receive a 7% increase to their contracts, as well as a repeat of the $1 million add-on, but still have millions less than they were provided in FY2022. SBYSPs simply cannot compete for qualified staff at their current contract levels. New Jersey’s children are worthy of full investment in School Linked Services, which will require an additional $1.8 million increase to the OSLS current base funding over and above a 7% COLA. has gotten off to a good start and has been well received by both schools and communities. To ensure the continued success of this program, which works in collaboration with and is complementary to SBYSPs, its funding level of $43 million must be maintained in the FY2025 Budget.