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The report below was recently shared in the Montana Free Press's "Missoula This Week" newsletter written by Katie Fairbanks.

As part of its effort to increase the number of licensed mental health professionals in rural schools, the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ this year moved its school counseling program to a fully online master’s degree. 

The change allows Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ to attend the program without having to uproot their personal and professional lives, according to a UM news release. The first cohort of online Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ doubled last year’s in-person class from seven to 15. 

“That’s what made it possible for me — the fact that it went online,” said Francine Stiffarm, a master’s student who works for Dodson Public Schools, in the press release. “As educators, you don’t want to step away from your role. I’m able to balance work and my personal life.”

Stiffarm’s school and most of its neighbors lack a licensed school counselor, she said. Across the state, nearly 24% of schools do not have a licensed counselor, according to the 2023 Montana Critical Quality Educator Report. 

Another UM program, VAST — Virtually Assisted School Teams — helps fill the gap by . 

Shifting the master’s program online is part of a strategy by UM and Montana State University to increase the number of licensed mental health professionals in rural schools statewide, according to the release. A few years ago, the universities found that a majority of school counseling graduates are clustered in the Missoula and Bozeman areas, while counselors who went to work in rural communities unfamiliar to them often didn’t stay for long. 

Kristen Murray, a UM counseling professor, was awarded a $3 million Rural School Mental Health Prepare in Place grant to recruit and pay the cost of attendance for eight Montana-based school counselors in the master program each year for the next five years. Graduates will be targeted toward rural, high-needs schools. 

“The idea is that these are people who have likely already built their lives in a place, in that community and school,” Murray said in a statement. “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 our state.”

Students can apply for the grant funding at the same time they apply for UM’s school counseling program. Although Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ from any state may enroll in the master’s program, they must be based in Montana to be eligible for the grant funds. 

Montana’s state licensure rules permit graduate Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ to become licensed provisionally if they’re enrolled in a school counseling program, allowing many UM Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ to get a job before graduation, according to the university. Across all of UM’s counseling master’s degrees, Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ have a 100% job placement within 18 months of degree completion.

“There's a ton of school counseling positions in the state right now,” said Arianna Vokos, UM school counseling program coordinator and clinical assistant professor. “This allows people to apply to our program, immediately fill those open positions while they're in our program and provide services immediately.”