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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Boston Pre-K Family Resources

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Boston Universal Pre-K provides workshops for parents and caregivers on various topics including parenting; accessing special education services; proactively teaching social, emotional, and behavioral skills; and responding to challenging behavior when it occurs.

Information on these workshops is included in the Family Workshops SY2024-2025 Pamphlet.

Family Engagement Coordinators

Each Boston Pre-K program has a dedicated Family Engagement Coordinator to support families and provide essential resources to help your child thrive. The Family Coordinator is your primary point of contact, so please contact them whenever you need assistance. If you are unsure who the Family Coordinator is at your program, you can ask your program directly or refer to our continuously updated list.

Early Childhood Family Council

The Early Childhood Family Council (ECFC) is a space for families to participate in the decision-making process of curriculum, policies and procedures for the Boston Pre-K Program. All Boston Pre-K families are encouraged to join this space and become active members of the Boston Pre-K program. If you are interested in joining please email Joelle Auguste, Family Engagement and Comprehensive Services Manager, at mauguste3@bostonpublicschools.org

The Connector System

The Connector System seeks to connect your Boston Pre-K student to specific Boston Public Schools kindergarten (K2) classrooms for the upcoming school year.

What is it?

The Connector System is not a guaranteed connection between a Boston Pre-K program and BPS school; rather, it is a priority within the BPS assignment lottery for children currently enrolled in a Boston Pre-K K1 seat.

The Connector system creates two priorities in the BPS K2 lottery assignment system:

Boston Pre-K K1 community-based children
Low-income priority for Boston Pre-K K1 community-based children, as determined by MA Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) Income Requirements.

To be eligible for the first priority (low income), families will be required to provide proof of income. If proof of income is not included with your eligibility documents, your Boston Pre-K student will be considered for the second priority listed below:

Who is Eligible?

Connector System Schools

Registration Process

To register for BPS K2 using the Connector System you have to register during the BPS Priority registration Period and make sure you list one or more of the connector schools on your ranked list of schools.

There is no other additional step you need to take at registration to benefit from the Connector System.

You can learn more about the BPS registration process here.

Free Playgroups for Boston Children Ages 1-5

Countdown to Kindergarten offers playgroups for Boston children ages 1-5 with an adult caregiver. Playgroups each meet once a week for two hours and are hosted by trained facilitators from Boston Public Schools. Activities promote social-emotional and school readiness skills, as well as community building.

Playgroups operate during the school year (September through June) and follow the BPS holiday and school break schedule. They are currently held at the Margarita Muñiz Academy in Jamaica Plain and the Mario Umana Academy in East Boston on a variety of days and times. Find a flyer (English and Spanish) here. Caregivers can fill out a form to receive more information: English form and Spanish form.

Boston Early Childhood Research Practice Partnership

The Boston Early Childhood Research Practice Partnership (RPP) began in 2007 and includes practitioners from Boston Public Schools and researchers from the University of Michigan, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and MDRC. Together, the team uses data and research to improve early educational experiences and outcomes for young children in Boston and beyond.

The RPP team recently launched a new website to share its work. You can explore past and current research studies and all associated publications. Boston UPK community providers are critical partners in this ongoing work and we thank them for their ongoing participation in the Boston UPK Study part of the RPP.