Conroe ISD Secures $1M Grant for Mental Health
Conroe ISD secured a $1M TEA Stronger Connections Grant to revamp mental health support for its 72,000 students.
CONROE, Texas — Conroe Independent School District is set to overhaul its approach to student and staff mental health following the receipt of a $1 million Stronger Connections Grant from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The funding, which spans a three-year implementation period through September 2026, aims to address the increasingly complex emotional and psychological needs of the district’s growing population.
With more than 72,000 students across 67 campuses, Conroe ISD has seen a marked increase in the demand for mental health support in the post-pandemic era. The grant serves as a critical bridge, allowing the district to move from reactive crisis management to proactive intervention.
Dr. Curtis Null, Conroe ISD Superintendent, underscored the necessity of the investment during the program's announcement. As the district continues to expand, maintaining the well-being of a diverse student body has become a cornerstone of our educational mission, Null stated. This grant provides the infrastructure needed to reach students before challenges escalate.
The financial injection will be primarily directed toward human capital and collaborative partnerships. A significant portion of the budget is earmarked for hiring additional Licensed Professional Counselors (LPCs), who will be embedded directly within school sites to offer immediate support. Furthermore, the district is formalizing its existing relationship with Tri-County Behavioral Healthcare. This partnership is designed to streamline referrals, ensuring that students requiring long-term or intensive clinical intervention have a clear, supported pathway to community-based care.
Dr. Bethany Gill, Director of Counseling Services for Conroe ISD, noted that the grant allows the district to innovate in how it supports student development. The focus is not just on counseling sessions, but on weaving mental health literacy into the daily classroom experience, Gill said.
To achieve this, the grant funds are being funneled into three specific areas:
Staff Development: Teachers and administrators will undergo specialized training to improve their ability to identify early warning signs of emotional distress or trauma in students.
Curriculum Expansion: The district is accelerating the development of social-emotional learning (SEL) resources designed to help students build resilience, self-regulation, and interpersonal skills.
Innovative Screening and Mindfulness Tools: The district is rolling out access to digital resources including Mindwise, a behavioral health screening tool that helps identify students at risk, and the implementation of virtual Calm Rooms. These digital spaces provide students with guided mindfulness exercises and tools for emotional de-escalation throughout the school day.
The TEA’s Stronger Connections Grant was established as part of a federal initiative to provide students with safer, more supportive learning environments. For Conroe ISD, this project arrives at a time when school districts statewide are grappling with the long-term emotional fallout of the pandemic and the pressures of rapid demographic growth.
The district expects to begin the recruitment process for new counseling staff immediately, with the majority of the new programs and digital resources expected to be fully operational by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
For parents and community members interested in learning more about the district’s mental health initiatives or seeking resources for their families, information is available on the Conroe ISD Counseling Services website at www.conroeisd.net. Further information on the TEA Stronger Connections grant program can be found at tea.texas.gov.