About Us

The School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System is a public-access, web-based platform that offers schools, districts, and states/territories a workspace and targeted resources to support school mental health quality improvement. SHAPE was developed by the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH), in partnership with the field, to increase the quality and sustainability of comprehensive school mental health systems. SHAPE houses the National School Mental Health Census and the School Mental Health Quality Assessment (SMH-QA). These measures are designed for team completion at the school or district level to document the school mental health system components, assess the comprehensiveness of a SMH system, prioritize quality improvement efforts and track improvement over time.

Our Mission

The SHAPE System is hosted by the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The NCSMH is committed to enhancing understanding and supporting implementation of comprehensive school mental health policies and programs that are innovative, effective, and culturally and linguistically competent across the developmental spectrum (from preschool through post-secondary), and three tiers of mental health programming (promotion, prevention, intervention).

The mission of the NCSMH is to strengthen policies and programs in school mental health to improve learning and promote success for America’s youth.

From its inception in 1995, the Center’s leadership and interdisciplinary staff has promoted the importance of providing mental health services to children, adolescents, and families directly in schools and communities.

What is the National Quality Initiative?

The National Quality Initiative (NQI) is an effort of the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) in partnership with the School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA) to advance accountability, excellence, and sustainability for school health services nationwide by establishing an online census and national performance measures. The SHAPE System serves as the portal by which comprehensive school mental health systems can access the census and performance measures, as well as obtain customized school and district level progress reports and useful resources to improve system quality and sustainability. The School-Based Health Alliance hosts a similar portal that invites school-based health centers to access their respective census and performance measures via Quality Counts.

Funding support for the development of The SHAPE System comes from the Behavioral Health Administration via the 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Waiver Program Management, Workforce Development and Evaluation and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Division of Child, Adolescent and Family Health, Adolescent Health Branch of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

What are the benefits of signing up as an entity?

When you sign up as an entity in the SHAPE System, you'll:

Create customized groupings of schools and/or districts
Gain access to the School Mental Health Quality Assessment results for schools and/or districts in your entity
Complete the School Mental Health Quality Assessment for your entity to better understand school mental health quality
Access free, targeted resources to help advance your school mental health quality and sustainability
Advance a data-driven mental health quality improvement process
Have your entity counted in the National School Mental Health Census
Achieve SHAPE recognition to acknowledge your school mental health quality improvement efforts

What are the benefits of signing up for my state/territory?

When you sign up for your state/territory in the SHAPE System, you'll:

Learn more about the quality of school mental health in schools and districts in your state/territory
Compare progress in school mental health across your districts
Access free, targeted resources to help advance your school mental health quality and sustainability

What are the benefits of signing up for my school district?

When you sign up for your school district in the SHAPE System, you'll:

Gain access to and be able to complete the School Mental Health Quality Assessment to better understand school mental health quality in your school district
Access free, targeted resources to help advance your school mental health quality and sustainability
Advance a data-driven mental health team process for your district
Have your district counted in the National School Mental Health Census
Achieve SHAPE recognition to increase opportunities for federal, state, and local grant funding

What are the benefits of signing up for my preschool?

When you sign up for your preschool in the SHAPE System, you'll:

Gain access to and be able to complete the School Mental Health Quality Assessment - Preschool Version to better understand preschool mental health quality
Access free, targeted resources to help advance your school mental health quality and sustainability
Advance a data-driven mental health team process for your school

What are the benefits of signing up for my school?

When you sign up for your school in the SHAPE System, you'll:

Gain access to and be able to complete the School Mental Health Quality Assessment to better understand school mental health quality in your school
Access free, targeted resources to help advance your school mental health quality and sustainability
Advance a data-driven mental health team process for your school
Have your school counted in the National School Mental Health Census
Achieve SHAPE recognition to increase opportunities for federal, state, and local grant funding

What are the benefits if I sign up as an individual?

When you sign up as an individual in the SHAPE System, you'll:

Gain access to and be able to complete the School Mental Health Quality Assessment to better understand school mental health quality in your school or district
Access free, targeted resources to help advance your school mental health quality and sustainability
Jumpstart your understanding of the SHAPE System before your school, district, or state joins