What Happens Next

Yes. You have full autonomy over your time. In your first month we recommend 25 to 30 hours per week while you become familiar with the campus and build your caseload. A five-hour day is the pattern most Transitional Coaches℠ settle into.

Transitional Coaches℠ commonly maintain practice outside of school hours, and your existing professional obligations are expected to continue. The specifics of your participation are set out in your agreement.

Coaches arrange their own coverage. Every coach's needs are different — Healthcare.gov and Freelancers Union are two resources coaches have found useful for individual plans. Contact them directly for plan details.

You can see the full per-state fee schedule right here on this page — pick your state to view the per-service rates and the standard-delivery daily, monthly, and annual figures. (For a quick projection, the homepage also has an earnings calculator.) Anything specific to your own agreement or payment timing, text Provider Support at (202) 740-9310. If you're weighing an offer, send those questions before your interview — school administrators can't address compensation during it.

No. Your focus is always the students on your caseload.

Yes. You are required to carry it, and it's typically modest — coaches often report around $140 a year. Your own professional association is the best place to start; groups like the ACA (through HPSO), AMHCA, and NBCC offer coverage for clinicians. Contact them directly for current rates.

You can begin accruing once you are cleared, credentialed, and working on a campus. SBHSN does not provide supervision. Most Transitional Coaches℠ locate their own board-approved supervisor, though we can sometimes point you toward providers in the network.

Yes. Coordinate directly with the principal.

The principal's decision usually comes shortly after your interview. You're generally notified within a few days.

Within 24 hours of the school's decision.

The program runs the 180-day academic year. Summer options vary by site: some coaches provide services at a summer school location, some offer telehealth, and some take the summer off and return for the new academic year.

Yes. Transitional Coaches℠ serve as independent contractors, so you're responsible for your own taxes and receive a 1099 at year-end. Coordinate your filings with your own CPA or tax professional.

Here's the short version: we review your application against your state's qualifications, forward you to the school, and the school coordinates an interview. If they'd like to proceed, your agreement is emailed to you — once you sign, you complete onboarding orientation with the Network and background screening with the school district, then a pre-implementation meeting and a first-month orientation before you're placed on campus. You'll find the full step-by-step, with timing and a visual roadmap, on the [What Happens Next page](/what-happens-next).

You'll receive an email directing you to begin background screening with the school district and to complete your self-paced training.

The school district, not SBHSN. Once the principal gives the green light, you'll be directed through the district's clearance process.

Typically 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the speed of fingerprints, district checks, and paperwork.

Yes, with approval from both the school principal and the SBHSN Grant Director. The approval must be documented in writing.

It's the standing document setting out what the school is responsible for providing. It's standardized for compliance, but principals may request adjustments — academic grade requirements, for example. SBHSN works with schools to balance compliance with local needs.

Some states add steps. Michigan providers need an active Medicaid number and CHAMPS account (registering as a SIGMA vendor first) before campus placement. Florida providers complete and notarize an Affidavit of Good Moral Character. If your state has additional requirements, they'll be included in your onboarding instructions — text Provider Support at (202) 740-9310 if you're unsure what applies to you.

You don't report your schedule to SBHSN. Coordinate directly with the school principal. If you're absent without communicating it, the school may request a replacement coach.

Two sessions most days, 7 students per session — there's no maximum, but that's the design point in the fee schedule — building to a 14 student-encounter daily goal. Each session runs 26 to 30 minutes.

Yes. Caseloads shift as student needs change. New entries usually wait for the next cycle, though urgent exceptions are made. You should be adding new students every month — once you're established on campus, continual enrollment is expected, because student needs are ongoing.

The grant readiness profile identifies a point of contact responsible for working with you to build schedules around student availability and course load.

Yes. The school provides a dedicated, private access center for your sessions — that's a standard part of the grant readiness profile every campus sets up before you start.

Usually only one is available on campus. If two work better for your population, you may implement that approach.

Complete a new biopsychosocial assessment and treatment plan to restart services.

Tell us. Text Provider Support at (202) 740-9310, and we'll coordinate with the school directly.

Text Provider Support at (202) 740-9310 first — that's the fastest way to reach us for almost everything. If you'd rather speak with someone live, call (866) 950-9812.

Your Program Host. Daily review and approval of clinical notes is one of their core responsibilities — notes must be confirmed as medically necessary before processing, and a coach cannot sign off on their own. This applies whether or not you hold an independent license.

Make it a warm, private, welcoming space. The essentials coaches use: post privacy rights and clear group rules; arrange chairs in a circle or triangle with the coach at the head; post a sign outside your office with your name, title, group hours, and individual-session availability; highlight both positive and negative behaviors and their consequences; use bulletin boards for names, initials, birthdays, and star group members; keep program registration forms on hand; and keep small rewards available for participation.

The criteria used to identify students who may benefit from the program: living in poverty, below grade level in math or reading, poor attendance, a history of behavioral difficulties, grade retention, and lack of connectedness with an adult in the school.

Morning direct services from 8:15 to 10:15 — group and individual sessions. Logistics and reporting from 10:15 to 11:15: documenting the morning, coordinating with faculty, following up with students who missed group. Afternoon direct services from 11:50 to 2:30, mirroring the morning. Logistics and reporting again from 2:30 to 3:45: caseload management, recruiting new students, assessments and treatment plans, and coordinating with administrators.

There's no single fixed pattern — the idea is to split your caseload into cohorts and rotate teacher consultations, group sessions, and point-of-contact calls across the week so each cohort gets one of each rather than everything landing on the same day. An open day for brief individual sessions, observation, and catch-up documentation is worth keeping regardless of the specific arrangement you land on.

An implementation overview of about an hour and twenty minutes, plus EMR training videos of about twenty-two minutes, both in Host University. Then an exit exam — every answer must be correct before your first claims disbursement.

Bookmark it and work through it in order — the material is organized chronologically and unlocks as you reach each stage. Watch the EMR training videos before you document anything.

Yes. Three routes: a paper registration form, an e-signature version, or a verbal consent form — whichever you use, it's recorded in the student's file. Consent rules, including the age at which a student can decide what's shared with a parent, vary by state.

Watch for six or more consecutive missed groups — that's the point where discharge from services may be required.

Yes. Host University includes a documentation assistant that helps structure session notes to the required format. It's a support tool — you're responsible for the accuracy of what you document. Every note still has to reflect a service that was medically necessary and clinically appropriate — the tool helps with structure, not with deciding what to document.

No. One meeting is one encounter, billed once, no matter how many students or topics come up within it. Every service has to be medically necessary and tied to a specific goal for a specific student — that's what determines whether something is billable, not how many ways it could be split up.

It has to be medically necessary and tied to an active treatment plan goal for a specific student — not a general coordination or informational touchpoint. If the clinical rationale can't be stated — which goal it addressed, how it supported progress — it isn't a billable consultation.

Students who don't meet program eligibility — those without parental consent, students covered under another exclusive program, or students who fall outside the approved eligibility group. Only approved students should be enrolled and served.

Delays usually trace back to documentation — services not documented daily, ineligible students served, or notes not assigned correctly in the system. Documenting accurately and on time is the best way to keep disbursements on schedule. For anything specific to your account, text Provider Support at (202) 740-9310.

Denials are rare — less than 1%. And they're almost entirely avoidable: following the eligibility policy instructions and serving only approved, eligible students keeps claims clean and denials minimal.

The SBHSN Principal Student Support Services Grant supports and increases a school's resources to extend behavioral health services on campus. The Transitional Coach℠ is funded through the Coordinated Care plans in the designated state — not directly by the grant. For specifics, text Provider Support at (202) 740-9310.

Yes — a Monthly Supervision Bonus and a Monthly Influence Bonus, on top of standard compensation. As with every service in this program, what counts toward these has to be medically necessary and clinically appropriate for the student it's delivered to — these describe what full-time, appropriately delivered care looks like, not a target pursued for its own sake.

Up to $175 a month for the Supervision Bonus, reimbursed against a submitted invoice. Up to $1,000 a month for the Influence Bonus — student loan forgiveness or a discretionary disbursement, whichever you choose. Both scale down at higher levels of a state-set rate tier.

Full qualification is tied to service volume above the baseline reflected in the fee schedule — 80 individual therapy visits and 560 group therapy visits in a month, which works out to about 4 individual and 28 group visits a day. Every one of those visits still has to be medically necessary and clinically appropriate for the student receiving it — this describes a fuller caseload delivered at full capacity, not a quota pursued independent of what your caseload actually needs.

Pull your visit-count report from the EMR showing the month and the totals, and text it to Provider Support at (202) 740-9310. It's reimbursed on your next disbursement cycle.