Volusia County Schools is looking to hire qualified school counselors, licensed mental health providers, social workers and school psychologists. This comes after the state gave school districts funds to beef up security and to expand mental health resources following the Parkland mass shooting.
Amy Hall oversees Volusia Schools’ counseling, mental health services and legislation. She said districts received money based on the number of students they have. The Volusia school district got about $1.5 million.
The district is planning to create five mental health response teams throughout the district.
"Our mental health teams will be able to go out and respond, if there is a school that has a student that needs immediate attention, our team will go out and they'll do assessments to see where those students are and if those students need additional support," said Hall, Volusia County Schools’ coordinator of student and government relations.
The district is looking to make about 15 more full-time staff hires. That is in addition to partnerships with local health providers.
Learn more about the district's plan for mental health services by listening to the interview in the audio player.