The Poplar Bluff School District has been awarded an $8,000 competitive grant to certify its school-based therapist in play therapy, a research-developed intervention designed for young students.

A total of a dozen schools and organizations in rural communities throughout central and southern Missouri recently received a quarter-million dollars through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation.

“We’re grateful to support the good work of these agencies to ensure brighter futures for the youth in their communities,” wrote Jill Reynolds, chair of the Coover Foundation grant selection committee and senior vice president at Commerce Trust Company.

The successful grant proposal, submitted by R-I Social Worker Carrie Booker in the fall, states that “providing play therapy to younger children as an early intervention to mental health, emotion regulation and behavioral deficits offers a non-verbal way for children to express their feelings, which correlates to their current developmental stage and language.”

Jodi Powell, the district's licensed therapist, will begin the training through the Heartland Play Therapy Institute in Kansas City in February. Besides ancillary expenses for travel, the remaining funds will be used to purchase play therapy supplies such as feeling charts, games and interactive toolkits.

“It’s a therapeutic way to use play to help children resolve psychosocial difficulties,” Powell explained. “Adults usually talk it out with somebody; kids play. That’s their language to help them process things.”

Certified play therapists are few and far between in the region, according to department officials, causing providers to be at caseload capacity. On top of the waitlists, barriers that have contributed to the service gap include copays or lack of insurance altogether; inconsistency in treatment, limiting progress; and transportation challenges.

The district anticipates engaging with approximately 25-30 students, preK to third grade, while continuing to provide cognitive behavioral therapy across the district for older students, up to grade 12. Last year, there were 93 referrals for mental health services at the lower elementary level and below.

The district adopted the school-based therapist position this academic year, after initially being funded through an Immediate Responsive Services Grant under the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education during 2023/24.

Powell earned a master's degree from Missouri State University and her bachelor's from the University of Tennessee in social work, respectively. She has worked as a clinical therapist with adults for the past few years, but said she wanted to return to her base of working with children when the job was established.

"Having a licensed, qualified mental health professional on staff to collaborate with our team and help socio-emotional regulation across the district allows us to address the root of what caused the dysregulation right there in class," said Attendance Officer Misty Dodson, who applied for the pilot funding. "We have a great partnership with mental health providers in the community, but the reality is they can't come to the school every time a kid is disruptive or needs immediate regulation.”

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Cutline: Grant writer Carrie Booker (left), district social worker, and Jodi Powell, school-based therapist, display a grant award Poplar Bluff Schools received last month through the Coover Regional Youth Mental Health Grant Program.