MISSOULA — In a move designed in part to reach rural areas of the state, the University of Montana announced it has switched from in-person instruction to fully online for its master’s degree in school counseling.
UM said the change makes it the only accredited online school counseling program in the state.
“Already, the first cohort of online pupils doubled that of last year’s face-to-face students,” UM said in a news release about the change.
The change is expected to allow more people already living and working in rural areas to complete degrees in a state with a significant need for mental health support. School counselors support students with academics, career readiness and socially and emotionally.
Montana has the highest suicide rate in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2022, the most recent year of data available, Montana had a rate of nearly 29 deaths by suicide per 100,000, nearly double the U.S. average of 14 per 100,000.
The 2023 Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey of high school students found that 26% of respondents said they had seriously considered suicide in the last 12 months, although trend lines have fluctuated the last couple of decades.
UM said the shift to online instruction is part of a strategy at UM and Montana State University to get more licensed mental health professionals into rural schools across the state. It has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Education.
UM said it recently received a $3 million Rural School Mental Health Prepare grant, which will help the university recruit and pay the cost of attendance for eight school counselors based in Montana over the next five years.
A few years ago, UM and MSU learned their school counseling graduates mostly stayed in the Missoula and Bozeman areas, and counselors who went to work in rural communities didn’t stay long. So UM said it shifted its program to connect with aspiring school counselors already living in rural areas.
“What we’ve decided to do with this grant is leverage the online program to reach people who are living and working in rural Montana who want to become school counselors in their communities,” said UM counseling professor Kristen Murray in the news release.
“The idea is that these are people who have likely already built their lives in a place, in that community and school. By getting access to this level of training, they can stay and sustain mental health support in their communities for many years to come — and then we can start to close the gap in school counselors in the state.”
The news release said nearly 24% of schools in Montana do not have a licensed counselor, citing the 2023 Montana Critical Quality Educator Report.
However, UM also said 100% of its counseling master’s students have jobs within 18 months of finishing their degrees.
To apply to the Rural School Mental Health Prepare in Place grant, email kristen.murray@mso.umt.edu.
Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.
