Behavioral Health Student Services Act Statewide Technical Assistance Coordinator (STAC)

Behavioral Health Student Services Act (BHSSA) Statewide TA Center (STAC) is implemented by the Center for Applied Research Solutions (CARS), in partnership with the California School-Based Health Alliance (CSHA), with a commitment to creating human-centered, dynamic, and richly interpersonal learning spaces that motivate and inspire participants.

In California, 58 counties receive grant funding from the Commission for Behavioral Health (formerly the MHSOAC) to foster stronger school-community behavioral health partnerships that can leverage resources to help students succeed by authorizing counties and local educational agencies to create programs that include targeted interventions for students with identified social-emotional, behavioral, and academic needs.

Through the BHSSA STAC (2025-2028) project, CARS provides training and technical assistance for the 58 BHSSA grantees and intentionally works to coordinate services offered from STAC, the Technical Coaching Teams, and aligned local, state, and federal initiatives to support the increase in skills, knowledge, and competencies of the BHSSA grantees and their partners.

Our five goals are:

1. Improve the coordination of California state and local, state, and federal school behavioral and mental health policies and resources. 
2. Increase school behavioral and mental and behavioral health literacy among BHSSA grantees and partners. 
3. Provide a centralized provider to integrate and strengthen school behavioral and mental health resources. 
4. Improve, sustain, and increase uptake of TTA activities from both the BHSSA grantees and their partners. 
5. Resource and refer grantees and partners to aligned, already existing content, concurrent initiatives, and learning opportunities, and bridge school behavioral and mental health research to practice.