Virginia Beach City Public Schools is launching a free teletherapy program for roughly 35,000 students in grades six through 12, partnering with Uwill, a national teletherapy provider, to expand mental-health access across one of Virginia’s largest school districts.
Program Details and Access
The service provides unlimited virtual counseling available after school, at night, on weekends, and during school breaks. Students can schedule same-day or recurring sessions and select therapists matching their specific needs, including counselors experienced with military families, fluent in languages other than English, or familiar with clinical concerns such as anxiety or trauma. In crisis situations, students can connect with a licensed trauma-trained clinician within 30 seconds, according to Michael London, founder and CEO of Uwill.
Robert Jamison, executive director of student support service at VBCPS, described the initiative as designed to reach students who may not feel comfortable visiting a counselor’s office or who need help when school-based staff aren’t available. “We hope to have mental-health services be even more accessible than they currently are,” Jamison said. “The goal is to make it more accessible and to help fill in any gap that does exist when it comes to access to services.”
Funding and Broader Context
The $250,000 state grant administered by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services funds the program, which extends Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Right Help, Right Now initiative aimed at making behavioral health support available to Virginians before, during and after a crisis. Virginia ranks 48th in the nation for youth access to mental-health care. Nearly 40% of high school students statewide report persistent sadness or hopelessness, and school mental-health staff across Virginia report sharp increases in anxiety and depression among teens.
London noted that Uwill employs therapists directly rather than contracting through third-party networks, maintaining a stable pool of more than 100 Virginia-licensed providers. Jamison emphasized that in-person counseling remains critical for younger children, but teletherapy can be especially effective for older students seeking privacy and flexibility, stating: “There is no one program that’s going to meet the needs of 63,000 students. It’s a layering of supports that makes the system work better.”
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-12-11/virginia-beach-public-schools-teletherapy-students-6-12-jamison-dbhds