When the funding for Shannon Johnson鈥檚 job as a school mental health counselor came to an abrupt end, two years into a five-year grant, she thought about the work left to be done.
Johnson taught elementary and middle-school students in rural Kentucky how to navigate conflict, build resilience and manage stress and anxiety before a crisis happens. Few districts, especially rural ones, can dedicate a full-time role to early intervention amid a national shortage of mental health staff.
But the Trump administration discontinued her grant, giving her a sudden end date. So when another job opened in Shelby County Public Schools鈥攖his one not reliant on federal grants鈥攕he took it.
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