SAN ANTONIO —  The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act became law after the mass shooting in Uvalde, sending $10.8 billion toward mental health resources in Texas schools.

“They’ll bring students in here to work on different social skills,” said Dr. Albrey Hogan.

Dr. Albrey Hogan has been an educator for more than two decades. She serves as the executive director of special education for Southwest ISD in San Antonio.

“Even coming out of the pandemic we were already at a point where we were drowning,” Dr. Hogan said, “in terms of mental health concerns.”

She makes weekly rounds to district campuses to ensure they have the right staff in place to serve students with special needs, which includes mental health.

“When you have incidents like Uvalde it reminds us that we have to be better,” Dr. Hogan said. “We have to. We have to find ways to fill that gap for students. No longer can school districts just think about academics. It’s about the whole child.”

But there aren't enough mental health professionals for the over 1,000 school districts statewide.

“We’re all struggling to find qualified people to come in and fill gaps,” Dr. Hogan said.

Following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, supported the multibillion-dollar investment in school safety.

“One thing we can all agree on is we ought to keep firearms out of the hands of people who are suffering from mental health problems or with criminal records,” said Sen. Cornyn.

A big part of the Safer Communities Act is addressing mental health needs in underserved communities.

Psychology professor Dr. Victor Villarreal said the University of Texas at San Antonio was awarded a $3.7 million grant from the Department of Education. The grant's function is to compensate students to spend two years on district campuses getting intense, hands-on training.

“It’s a Texas need, it’s a national need,” Dr. Victor Villarreal said. “It’s a critical shortage.”

UTSA has partnered with Southwest ISD to expand mental health resources across the district.

“[It's a] five-year grant and our goal starting this summer is to have 10 graduate student per year placed at Southwest ISD,” Dr. Villarreal said.

“It just makes exceptional, well-trained students,” Dr. Villarreal said. “That when they graduate and they are on the job market, have such great experience.”

The initiative's goal is to expand the pipeline of school psychologists. Although the program hasn’t been in place for a year, Dr. Hogan said slow progress is better than no progress.

“We’re all still seeing holes and gaps and things we need to work on,” Dr. Hogan said. “And we’re all seeing improvement, but yes it’s going to take time.”