Best Practices: Rural School Mental Health Collaboration & Funding
Pre-Conference - Learning Session
Presentation Date: Friday, October 30, 2026
Presentation Time: 11:00 - 11:50 AM
Location: EVERGREEN/Frontier
Handouts
Audience: All
DESCRIPTION:
Learn how some rural Wisconsin school districts are strengthening their mental health programs through high-gain collaborations, private funding, community engagement, cost-saving measures, and effective story telling. This session shares best practices from two rural school consortiums and several small rural districts that have demonstrated how size can actually be an advantage in the delivery of mental health services. The session also highlights what private funders look for in school mental health funding opportunities and the most common uses of private funds for school mental health.
PRESENTER: Steve Goldberg - Executive Director, WEA Member Benefits Foundation
Steve Goldberg is in his fifth year as executive director of the WEA Member Benefits Foundation, where he leads a statewide school mental health funding initiative which provides unrestricted, multi-year grants to selected school districts, plus fundraising guidance to help them secure additional financial support from private sources. The Foundation currently funds mental health programs in 28 districts serving 155,000 of Wisconsin’s 785,000 K-12 students. More than half of those districts are rural.
Steve serves on the boards of the Wisconsin Coalition for Expanding School-Based Mental Health and the UW Center for Community & Nonprofit Studies. He’s the past chairman of the Wisconsin Philanthropy Network and also served on the Advancing a Healthy Wisconsin Endowment Mental Health Investment Team. The Madison School District has named him a Champion for Madison Public Schools. Prior to joining the WEA Member Benefits Foundation, he was executive director of a major Madison- based corporate foundation.
PRESENTER: Elizabeth Langteau, Student Behavioral & Wellness Consultant - CESA6
Tapping into 30 years of experience as an occupational therapist, student support specialist, and system change agent, Elizabeth brings an enthusiastic, relentless belief that all learners can be successful when surrounded by a strong team. She helps those teams design and gather data systems, analyze data, and design student support plans. She coaches school mental health teams as they work to evaluate current mental health systems and design and implement strategic plans. She has served in dozens of school districts throughout Wisconsin as an occupational therapist, consultant/coach working with staff supporting students with autism and other social-emotional needs, and as a coach helping school teams implement evidence- based practices with their diverse learners. She has supported numerous school teams in their implementation of comprehensive school mental health.