BPS Ensures Every Student, Family, and Staff Member Has Mental Health Care

New landmark partnership with Cartwheel, The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health (BCCMH), and Boston Public Schools ensures timely, multilingual mental health services for students, families, caregivers, and educators.

Boston Public Schools Ensures Every Student, Family, and Staff Member Has Mental Health Care

BOSTON, MA – December 10, 2025 – Boston Public Schools (BPS) today announced a transformative investment in student mental health through a partnership with Cartwheel, Massachusetts' leading school-based mental health provider, with implementation support from the MA School-Based Telebehavioral Health Pilot led by The Brookline Center, a partner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. This comprehensive initiative will bring immediate, multilingual mental health care to students, families, and staff at 82 schools across the district, in partnership with The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health (BCCMH).

“We want all our students to feel supported and inspired when they come to school every day as they work towards achieving their goals and aspirations," said BPS Chief of Students Cory McCarthy. “We recognize that for some students, this becomes more difficult when they are facing mental health challenges. Through this new partnership with Cartwheel, BPS is connecting our students and families to timely, high-quality, evidence-based support. This initiative aims to help remove barriers that prevent students from feeling ready to participate in school, which will help strengthen their attendance, enhance their well-being, and promote personal growth, giving every young person the opportunity to succeed beyond our classrooms.”

Boston Public Schools has long been a leader in student mental health, making exceptional investments in counseling services, crisis intervention, and partnerships with local mental health organizations. Despite these efforts and the district's commitment to supporting students' social-emotional wellbeing, the needs still vastly outweigh capacity. School leaders are seeing the direct impact on student attendance, classroom behaviors, and academic performance, driving the district's decision to make this bold, proactive investment to support more students and families.

"Boston Public Schools is setting the standard for what's possible when a district decides that student mental health is mission-critical," said Joe English, CEO of Cartwheel. "This isn't just about providing therapy—it's about creating a comprehensive ecosystem of support that helps students thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. We're honored to partner with a district that shares our belief that every child deserves timely, best-in-class mental health care."

Cartwheel, with programmatic funding from The Brookline Center, brings the nation's most comprehensive school-based mental health care model to BPS. Cartwheel’s platform empowers school-based staff to identify students who may benefit from evidence-based therapy and psychiatry from a licensed Cartwheel clinician, track student progress as they receive services, and coordinate with families. The partnership also includes Cartwheel's specialty School Avoidance Program, which helps students tackle mental health related causes of chronic absenteeism.

With a track record serving 325+ school districts nationwide, including 70 districts here in Massachusetts, Cartwheel combines local expertise with national-scale impact.

"This changes everything for our students and families. When a child is struggling, they can be connected to a licensed clinician immediately and not in months,” said Jenna Parafinczuk, Director of Social Work, Division of Student Support, Boston Public Schools. “That kind of support can make the difference between a student falling behind or thriving in school and in life."

The partnership addresses an urgent crisis facing schools nationwide. According to the CDC, more than 40% of high school students report feeling persistently sad or hopeless, while 1 in 5 seriously considered suicide in the past year. In Massachusetts, families often face months-long waitlists for child and adolescent mental health services. This partnership eliminates those barriers entirely.

“The data also reflects the collective strength of the statewide SBTBH Pilot,” said Carla Gonçalves, Director of the Massachusetts School Based Telebehavioral Health Pilot at The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health. “As the state’s lead SBTBH implementation partner, The Brookline Center measures program effectiveness and ensures that districts and clinical providers, including Cartwheel, can deliver high quality, equitable care. Across the Commonwealth, we have supported more than 2,280 referrals, completed 1,266 intakes, and delivered nearly 19,000 telebehavioral health sessions to over 2,400 students, contributing to measurable reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms. As we welcome Boston Public Schools as a new pilot site, we are building a proven, data driven model. We are honored to partner with Boston and providers like Cartwheel to expand timely, multilingual, culturally responsive mental health care across the Commonwealth.”

At the school level, educators see Cartwheel’s program as transformative. Since its launch earlier this school year, over 350 Boston Public Schools students have been referred to Cartwheel and more than 450 teletherapy sessions have been completed. The program was made possible with implementation and capacity-building support and programmatic funding from The Massachusetts School Based Telebehavioral Health Pilot led by The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health, which has a long history of driving school-based mental health innovation across the commonwealth and nationally.

"When students walk through our doors each day, they bring with them their aspirations, hopes and their vision for the future. Students also bring with them the many challenges they face every day, and the emotions that accompany them,” said Principal Andrew Bott, Brighton High School. “Having direct access to mental health care through this partnership means our students don’t have to face those challenges alone. It allows them to focus on learning, connecting with their peers, and seeing themselves as capable of achieving their goals. Providing this service to our school community is about showing every student that their well-being should always be a top priority, and we're all here to ensure they have the supports needed to succeed.”

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Office of Language Access Services (OLAS)

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Our Mission

The mission of the Office of Language Access Services (OLAS) is to ensure families have meaningful access to all aspects, programs, opportunities, and services pertaining to their children’s education by providing a multitude of language services via internal and external resources to safeguard communications.

Our Vision, Our Community, Our Work.

The Office of Language Access Services plays a vital role in empowering families in the District by ensuring effective communication. Our mission revolves around bridging language gaps, so that parents and guardians whose primary language is not English can access essential information. We offer a variety of language assistance services, as detailed in the Available Services section. These services include translation and interpretation in the District's nine major languages—Arabic, Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese. When needed, we also provide assistance in a wide range of additional languages, fostering an inclusive community where everyone feels valued and connected. Please read the BPS Office of Family & Community Advancement's Translation & Interpretation Services Protocol for additional information.

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Toolkit for Staff

The OLAS Toolkit for BPS Staff is a comprehensive resource that helps educators and administrators provide BPS parents with equitable access to information and resources in a language they can understand. It offers information on available language access services, language access policies, relevant laws and regulations, compliance requirements, and guidelines for developing and implementing language access plans within schools. Click here to access the Toolkit.

ToolKit for Families

The OLAS family toolkit provides information about the resources and services available to the Boston Public School District to support limited and non-English-speaking families. It also aims to raise awareness among families about the available language assistance services and resources, as well as the District's obligation to provide such services.

Multilingual Parent Site

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The BPS Language Access Services website for parents is a website that provides multilingual information about language access services for parents. BPS believes that engaging with families is very important for students' educational success. The Office of Language Access Services (OLAS) is committed to providing access to district programs, services, and activities to parents and guardians who need communication in languages other than English. This commitment ensures that language assistance is available to families for free. The Parent Site provides a toolkit with resources and information for limited and non-English-speaking families to increase awareness about language assistance services and the District's obligation to offer them. Additionally, the site encourages feedback from parents and guardians to improve language access services continuously.

District at a Glance

The Boston Public Schools is one of the most diverse school districts in the entire nation, serving over 46,000 students.

Representing 130+ countries in 108 schools

45% of BPS Students are multilingual learners

Over 75+ languages spoken at home