RAMPED

MISSION:

RAMPED’s mission is to create and sustain a strong pipeline of mental health providers for rural and low-income school communities. Through partnerships with Karnes City, Kenedy, Pawnee, Pettus, and Runge ISDs and local universities, the program provides meaningful internships and field experiences that prepare future school counselors, social workers, and psychologists to support student well-being and success.

PURPOSE:

Karnes City, Kenedy, Pawnee, Pettus, and Runge school districts have partnered to create the Rural Area Mental Health Professional Enhancement and Development (RAMPED) program.  Working together with Lamar University, Our Lady of the Lake, Texas A&M Kingsville, Texas A&M San Antonio, Texas State University, University of Houston-Victoria, University of Texas Arlington, and the University of Texas San Antonio, the RAMPED program will increase the number of school counselors, social workers, and psychologists working in rural and low-income communities.  

The RAMPED program has five phases: (1) Filling the Gap, (2) Growing Our Own, (3) Community Re-Specialization, (4) Building Capacity, and (5) Sustaining the Program.  The first phase, Filling the Gap, involves recruiting school mental health professionals seeking to complete their fieldwork to work in RAMPED schools.  This is an essential requirement as it will take up to two years for the program to develop its own school mental health professionals.  The second phase, Growing Our Own, will open the RAMPED program to local area school staff, focusing on schoolteachers and counselors wishing to re-specialize by securing a credential as a school mental health professional.  If there are not enough schoolteachers and counselors to fill the available slots in the RAMPED program, then phase three will be initiated.  In phase three, Community Re-specialization, the program will accept referrals from community members willing to re-specialize and obtain a school mental health credential. The focus will be on community members with a teaching certificate or local area mental health professionals willing to work in the school district.  Phase four, Building Capacity, involves ensuring school mental health professionals are always available in the community to fill open positions.  Thus, the RAMPED program will provide slots for up to 56 individuals to secure their school mental health professional certification.  Finally, phase five, Sustaining the Program, will utilize the results of the RAMPED program's rigorous evaluation to help secure local and state funding to sustain those components of the program that are deemed effective. 

Grant Awarded Spring 2023 through the Department of Education

For more information email RAMPED@kcisd.net