Massachusetts to expand school-based Bridge mental-health program with $13 million for high schools

Governor Maura Healey on Thursday announced a $13 million initiative to expand school-based Bridge programs to high schools across Massachusetts, saying the step aims to help students who miss school or fall behind because of mental-health crises.

The governor made the announcement at Wellesley High School during Mental Health Awareness Month and pointed to the local Bridge model, developed with the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health, as an example of how schools can integrate mental-health care. “This is about our young people,” Healey said, adding that the program “promotes healing, wellness, and academic success for students who experience a mental-health-related disruption in their education.”

Officials framed the expansion as targeted to communities with higher levels of need. Healey said the administration will deploy $13,000,000 “across these communities” and credited the legislature for fully funding the Student Opportunity Act; she did not specify a precise timetable or the exact funding mechanism for each grant award during the event.

Parents and alumni at the event described the program’s impact at Wellesley High. Rebecca and Steve Sullivan said their son spent a month hospitalized during high school and that the Bridge program’s coordination of care made his return to school possible. “Bridge is truly the bridge that allows, enables, and empowers students to come back from major mental health setbacks and absences and to get back on track,” the Sullivans told the crowd. Alumna Annie McCauley said Bridge staff supported her for three years and that without the program she would not have graduated on time.

Event speakers described the model’s local funding and partners: the program at Wellesley started with guidance from the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health and was supported by a grant from the MetroWest Health Foundation and by Wellesley Public Schools. At the event, officials said the model is already being used in about 100 school districts in Massachusetts, a figure stated at the event; organizers did not provide detailed documentation at the visit.

Brooke DeWel, who introduced themself as commissioner of the Department of Mental Health during the event, called the Bridge program “a terrific example of how to integrate mental-health services into the school environment” and urged broader replication.

Healey said the administration will focus the first phase of expansion on high schools and communities with higher need but did not release a formal rollout schedule at the event. The announcement does not constitute new legislation; Healey credited prior legislative action on the Student Opportunity Act and described the $13 million as an executive-branch initiative to seed and scale school-based Bridge programs.

The administration said it expects to make further implementation details available through state channels; no formal vote or legislative action was taken at the Wellesley event.