LOS ANGELES — Budget cuts, layoffs and thinly stretched staff make it difficult for schools to address mental health.

There’s a program growing in a couple of schools where graduate students on the road to becoming therapists intern with students; these up-and-coming clinical counselors get the necessary residency hours to obtain their credentials. At the same time, the kids have increased access to mental health services.

The program has brought one alumna full circle.

During lunchtime, both clinical counselor Sarah Reynosa and sixth grader Kassandra Garcia Sanchez watch closely during the final round of the Mario Kart tournament at PUC Community Charter Middle School.

Like Kassandra, Reynosa was once a student at CCMS, but back then there wasn’t a counselor like her.

“Feels kind of groundbreaking, I get to do something that I love for a community I love and for students that I care about,” Reynosa said.

Reynosa fully supports dedicating a bit of school time to video games because this is a chance for some kids to leave their comfort zones. She’s noticed that since the pandemic, many adolescents worry about navigating crowds.

“Anxiety is a major point for almost 90% of the students that I talk to,” Reynosa said.

Kassandra can relate to that. It’s something she’s working on. She thinks of Reynosa, who she calls Miss Rey, as the first friend she made at CCMS.

“Miss Rey’s relationship towards me is something really important to me cause I see Miss Rey as a strong mother figure and someone to trust,” Kassandra said.

“It’s a first for me, like I’ve never been described as a mother figure, so it was super sweet, but it’s more just encouragement. I give all the children at this school, whether enrolled in counseling or not, I just try to give them encouragement,” Reynosa said.

Dr. Christine Sartiaguda is Reynosa’s supervisor and the director of clinical services at PUC, a network of charter schools. She’s also the founder of the Clinical Counseling Program. She’s responsible for bringing in marriage and family therapy interns to complete their clinical hours and ultimately try to recruit them.

“The students and families they’re in neighborhoods where there is gang violence, a lot of substance abuse, a lot of domestic violence and the students who were growing up in these neighborhoods didn’t really have anyone to talk to,” Sartiaguda said.

Children face a lot of challenges to their mental health. Government pandemic funds helped support some solutions. Even as that’s evaporated, this school system has found room in the budget to keep Reynosa and a few others who work in similar roles.

“I feel that a counselor at every school is an essential role. I feel that every kid needs some sort of stable adult to check in on them,” Reynosa said.

As a full-time employee this year, Reynosa also mentors counselor trainees who are following in her footsteps.