Montana Schools Receive $2M to Tackle Mental Health and Violence

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative in Lolo has just received a $1 million grant from the Office of Public Instruction’s Bureau of Justice 24 STOP School Violence Program Competitive Solicitation.

I spoke to Montana’s U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich about the nearly $2 million in grants that the Lolo group will share with the Billings Public School District.

A Collaborative in Lolo Gets $1 Million in Education Funding

“We're really pleased to announce that we awarded two entities in Montana, The Billings public schools, and the other being the Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative based in Lolo,” began Laslovich. “$1 million to the Lolo entity, and then just under a million for Billings Public Schools to address mental health initiatives that both entities would like to do for people they serve.”

Laslovich was gratified to see funds going to organizations that help to prevent violence, rather than after violence has occurred.

Laslovich Was Pleased to be Proactive With The Lolo Funding

“The Department of Justice is inherently reactive to issues,” he said. “Specifically, a crime is committed, it's investigated, it's referred to us, we prosecute and then send them to prison, and far too often, we are not being proactive. So I'm really encouraged that we're getting substantial resources into the hands of each of these entities.”

Laslovich described the work done by the Lolo collaborative.

“In Lolo, the Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative is serving rural schools, in particular in western Montana where they'll be able to provide mental health services, including trauma-informed care, wellness training, curriculum, and then maybe even teletherapy for folks to try to get ahead of those who have mental illness,” he said.

Laslovich Said the Billings School Districts are Seeing Rising Gang Violence

Laslovich said violence in the Billings school district is rising, and the nearly $1 million will help address that issue.

“The violence in Billings in particular has been a problem, not just in the city itself, but the county and then the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations that splash into Billings,” he said. “I know that the superintendent there, along with the school board, has been proactive about this, so much so that they've gotten this million dollars for what they're calling a ‘Culture of Care Program’ where they're going to hire two full-time specialists to work directly with students in six middle schools.”

According to the press release, the Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative proposes the Expanding Montana Rural Student Mental Health Supports initiative, which aims to extend mental health resources to underserved rural, tribal, and frontier schools in Western Montana.