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• Counseling was the primary mental health service provided by school social workers amid COVID-19 school reopening. • Barriers to service delivery included the virtual format of service delivery and emerging experiences of burnout. • Facilitators to providing mental health services included collaboration with school and community-based partners. • Participants wished schools had offered additional in-person mental health services and more professionals. Child and adolescent mental health needs are at unprecedented rates in the continued wake of COVID-19. While prior research has examined school mental health practice during initial COVID-19 school closures, few studies have examined school mental health practice amid COVID-19 school reopening. This exploratory study investigates school social workers' perceptions of their mental health service and support delivery during COVID-19 school reopening as well as the facilitators and barriers they experienced to delivering these supports. This study also examines school social worker's perceptions of the mental health supports they wished were offered. Fifteen current school social workers in one southeastern state who practiced during the first full school year amid COVID-19 school reopening (2020–2021) participated in virtual interviews. Interview data were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach. Findings suggest crisis intervention and counseling were primary mental health services provided by school social workers during this time, and barriers to service delivery included the virtual format of service delivery, emerging experiences of burnout, and a lack of mental health providers. Facilitators to providing mental health services included collaboration with school and community-based partners and supervisor support. Participants wished schools had offered additional in-person mental health services and supports and expressed a need for additional school mental health professionals to be hired. Implications are offered for school mental health practice and research with the aim of helping to inform ongoing responses to COVID-19, future crisis response planning, and areas for improvement in current school mental health approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of low-income youth participation in a summer sport-based positive youth development (PYD) program on individual, parent, family, and community level outcomes. Specific mechanisms that contribute to program outcomes also were explored. Ten parents of youth participating in a summer sport-based PYD program were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Parents identified key outcomes at the individual, parent, family and community level, such as youth biopsychosocial development and positive changes in affect, parents'' peace of mind due to child involvement, improved family interactions, youth involvement in prosocial activities, and community interaction/support. Key mechanisms contributing to these outcomes point to the importance of program characteristics such as the qualities and roles of counselors, incorporation of lessons for sport and life, opportunities for peer/family interactions, program structure, and the provision of resources. Findings provide qualitative evidence of the value of sport-based PYD summer programs, as well as point to important mechanisms that may guide program design in this emergent field of practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]