Mental Health Screening

Screening is the assessment of students to determine whether they may be at risk for a mental health concern. This can be accomplished with a systematic tool or process, including standardized student-report, parent-report, teacher-report measures, examining deidentified, aggregate mental health surveillance data, or a structured teacher nomination process. Screening is assessment in the absence of known risk factors to identify students who may benefit from Tier 2 or Tier 3 services and supports,

The School Mental Health Quality Guides is a series developed by the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) for The School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System. The Quality Guides provide guidance to school mental health systems to advance the quality of their services and supports. The guides contain background information on each domain, best practices, possible action steps, examples from the field, and resource guidance.

All resources referenced in the Quality Guide, along with many others, can be found in the SHAPE system resource center.

• View Assessing Social Influencers of Health and Education, an issue brief created by the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.