In FY 2025, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) was appropriated $30 million ($15 million in FY 2025 and $15 million in FY 2026) to collaborate with the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) in providing grants for school-based health clinics. These clinics would provide medical, behavioral health and other services to students, family/caregiver(s) and school personnel. As a condition of funding, clinics must have the capability to bill third-party insurers or public programs such as Medicaid for services.

In FY 2026, the budget language appropriating funding for providing grants for school-based health clinics was amended in two ways. The first allowed DBHDS flexibility in providing grants for on-site and/or mobile school-based health clinics. The second included grants to school divisions to contract for mental telehealth services. With this change to the language, DBHDS decided to use state funds to implement both initiatives. As such, $7.5 million was set aside for grants to establish school-based health clinics and the remaining for mental telehealth.

In Fall 2025, DBHDS began a Request for Proposals (RFP) process to award grants for school-based health clinics and a Request for Applications (RFA) for mental telehealth services. Table 1, on numbered page 4 of the report, outlines the timeline for contracting. For school applications, the agency collaborated with VDOE to compile a list of telehealth vendors to recommend to school divisions (Item 117 #1c ) to use at their discretion for vendor contracting. There is an anticipated start date of January 2026 for contracts and clinic implementation. Applications for mental telehealth services were submitted from August 12 - September 17, 2025. From this process, 17 school divisions were accepted for funding. The agency is currently finalizing contracts with the divisions for an anticipated start timeframe of November 2025.