Given the prevalence and negative outcomes associated with untreated mental health concerns, there is an urgent need for schools to enhance their capacity to prevent, identify, and address these needs. This is particularly important for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who are more likely to be underserved and face barriers to mental health treatment. Current methods of addressing mental health at school are reactive and insufficient, failing to address the needs of all students. Without an explicit focus on dismantling systemic racism and inequity within schools, our society will continue to underserve those already disenfranchised. As such, this paper outlines the challenges as well as the importance of incorporating culture into a conceptualization of universal mental health in schools. We include state‐, district‐, and school‐level solutions in this conceptualization. Specifically, we propose sample solutions to the implementation of equity‐focused, comprehensive mental health practices within a multitiered system of support, focusing predominantly on universal (i.e., tier 1 level) practices.

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