Taylor to partner with 4C for mental health services

Mar. 18—Set to lose a partnership with Community Howard Regional Health after the end of the school year, Taylor Community Schools is turning to a different community partner to provides its students mental health support.

The Taylor School Board approved an agreement with 4C Health on Wednesday that will provide a mental health skills clinician to the school district.

The partnership comes after Community Health notified Taylor, Eastern, Kokomo and Western last year it was ending certain services it provided to the schools free of charge. This includes athletic trainers and mental health skills clinicians.

Schools could re-up with Community Health, however they would have to pay the salaries of those workers. It's a high price schools weren't willing to pay — Western was quoted at $474,000 — leaving school officials to look elsewhere.

4C Health will provide one mental health skills clinician to Taylor. They will work with students on behavioral, coping and regulatory skills. It's based on need, so if more students need services, 4C will supply more staff, according to Superintendent Steve Dishon.

The agreement is free for Taylor, except for a small fee the district will pay so non-Medicaid students can receive services.

"It's minor compared to Community Howard; they were going to charge us $80,000 and then charge insurance on top," Dishon said. "There was no way we were going to do that."

The situation is a sore spot for school officials, especially because the loss of mental health positions was not expected. That Community Health was ending athletic training services was known ahead of time.

A Community Health spokesperson told the Tribune earlier this year that contracts with schools needed to be restructured so schools absorbed the costs, due to reimbursement amounts and rising costs.

School officials said they were told that legislative changes were also part of the reason.

Some school administrators argue that although they don't pay Community Health for the services, students can be referred to the health network, such as if they are injured during an athletic event. In this scenario, the student becomes a patient of Community Health.

Howard County schools aren't the only ones that have lost partnerships with hospital networks. Schools in Grant and Clinton counties have also had to look elsewhere for athletic trainers.

Maconaquah School Corporation was dropped by Community Health in 2022. The school district is still without a regular athletic trainer.

4C Health staff will work with the Community Health staff at Taylor to hand off services before the end of the school year. Dishon said Community Howard stopped referrals a couple months ago.

'I feel like we're going to be in good hands," he said. "But we can't wait much longer because Community has checked out, essentially."

Spencer Durham can be reached at 765-454-8598, by email at spencer.durham@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @Durham_KT.

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