| For decades, public school systems have partnered with outside entities such as non-profits, community mental health centers, and school based health centers to provide therapeutic services to children within the school. During the same time, the understanding that school climate has wide ranging impacts on students has blossomed. There exists little evidence that providing outside therapeutic services can impact the school climate. To help administrators and school mental health professionals decide if contracting partner agencies that provide individual therapy for their school would be beneficial, this study was developed to evaluate the connection between these outside services and school climate. An analysis of covariance was used to analyze surrogate marker data from 63 elementary schools, of which 22 had outside provider therapists during the 2013-2014 school year. The results concluded that there were no statistically significant findings for any marker of school climate when controlling for confounding demographic data. Recommendations for further areas of study as well as practical applications follow the results. |
