Federal officials have awarded Marin County a five-year, $9.9 million grant for youth mental health efforts in public schools.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Education will support nine full-time positions and provide about $25,000 annually to train teachers and other staff over the five-year term.

The full-time positions will be funded at up to $160,000 a year each, said Lisa Miller, assistant superintendent at the Marin County Office of Education.

“The mental health needs of our youth continue to exceed available resources, despite significant investments in programs and staffing over the past several years,” Miller said.

Miller said the positions include four mental health positions that are already in place at the Novato Unified School District and San Rafael City Schools. Those posts have been funded by COVID-19 relief money or other one-time grants that are “due to sunset this year,” she said.

“Alarmingly, NUSD and SRCS, the two largest districts in Marin County, are facing staffing and program reductions because the one-time funding sources that seeded the interventions are set to expire,” Miller said.

In addition, three full-time positions will be created or maintained in Marin’s alternative education courses, including Marin’s Community School in San Rafael.Two full-time positions will be created to address chronic absenteeism. Miller said those positions will likely rotate countywide, depending on need.

“Since COVID, our schools have faced higher levels of chronic absenteeism than ever before,” Miller said. “To address this troubling trend, the grant will fund two positions solely dedicated to student and family outreach to increase school attendance.”

A committee of educators is being formed to decide what school districts need the chronic absenteeism staff and professional training help the most, Miller said.

John Carroll, the county superintendent of schools, said access to mental health services is “crucial for the well-being and success of our youth.”

“This funding will help us sustain critical programs and expand our ability to meet the challenges they face,” Carroll added. “Supporting the well-being of our youth is at the heart of our work.”

The award is from the U.S. Department of Education’s “school based mental health services” grant program.