Better Together · Public Education

Every student deserves
more than 22 minutes
a year.

A school counselor at 408 students serves each child for 22 minutes per year. Better Together delivers structured, clinician-supervised group therapy at $30 per student per session — documented, measurable, and scalable to every district in America.

8.9M Students Already Need This HIPAA + FERPA Compliant Medicaid Reimbursable 65% of Schools Already Offer Groups Patent Filed
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The Crisis in Numbers

The system identifies the need.
Then runs out of capacity.

49.3 million students. 97% of schools offering at least one mental health service. And yet the average student with a documented need receives less contact time with a mental health professional than a single therapy session. The system is not failing for lack of awareness. It's failing for lack of delivery infrastructure.

49.3M
US public school
students enrolled
8.9M
Students using school-based
mental health services 2024–25
408:1
National average students
per school counselor
39.7%
High schoolers reporting
persistent sadness/hopelessness
22
minutes per year — the average mental health contact time
a student receives from a school counselor at 408:1 ratio
22
Minutes per year
current system
(408:1 ratio)
vs.
480
Minutes per year
with BTG
(8 sessions × 60 min)
Current Reality
One counselor.
408 students.
ASCA recommends 250:1. The national average is 408:1. In high-need districts it exceeds 700:1. The counselor spends most of their day on scheduling, college applications, and crisis response. Structured group therapy for the 20% of students with diagnosed mental health needs simply does not happen. The need is identified. The capacity is absent.
$0
effective mental health group therapy
delivered per student per year in most districts
With Better Together
One clinician.
Ten students.
Every week.
BTG gives the school counselor a force multiplier. A licensed clinician — internal or contracted — supervises Sage-facilitated group sessions for 10 students simultaneously. The school doesn't need to hire ten new therapists. It needs one clinician and the BTG platform. Documentation is automatic. Outcomes are measured. Escalation is built in.
$30
per student per session — structured,
clinician-supervised, documented group therapy
Market Opportunity

8.9 million students.
$213M at 10% capture.

65% of schools already offer group-based mental health intervention. BTG doesn't ask schools to change their model — it gives them a platform to deliver it properly. Structured. Clinician-led. Documented. Measurable.

Market Layer Rate Students Relevance
US public enrollment 100% 49.3M National denominator
Diagnosed / clinical-need cohort ~20% ~9.9M Core care population
School-based service users 18% ~8.9M Immediate service market
Prevention / broad distress cohort 30–40% ~15–20M Prevention + early support
BTG 10% capture 10% of users ~887K $213M revenue capacity

8 sessions/year at $30/student. Directional for modeling. Localize by district, state funding, and Medicaid eligibility.

Proposed District Pilot
District Size
10,000 students
~1,800 service users
BTG Pilot Scale
250–750 students
6–8 sessions
Expected Outcome
Licensed access
documented group care
measurable outcomes
How it works — six steps
01
School referral or self-referral. Student enters via counselor, teacher, parent, MTSS team, IEP/504 team, or approved self-referral. No app download required.
02
Sage intake triage. Short conversational screen captures concern, urgency, consent status, and safety risk. Crisis signals route immediately to human review.
03
Dynamic group matching. Students matched by issue, age band, severity, schedule, and language into clinician-led groups of up to 10.
04
Licensed group session. A clinician leads. BTG manages access, attendance, real-time safety monitoring, group structure, and continuity. Therapist can override at any moment.
05
FERPA-compliant documentation. Progress notes, attendance, escalation flags, and outcome signals support district reporting, MTSS documentation, and Medicaid reimbursement workflows.
06
Escalation when needed. Students requiring individual care are routed to counselor, crisis resource, parent notification, or outside referral — automatically flagged and tracked.
District Impact Calculator
District enrollment 10,000 students
22
Minutes per student
per year (current)
180
Students served
with BTG pilot (10%)
How Districts Pay For It

Four funding streams. No new budget line required.

School districts already have access to funding mechanisms that cover BTG group therapy sessions. The platform fits within existing billing structures — it doesn't require new budget allocation.

🏥
Primary Path
Medicaid EPSDT
School-based Medicaid (EPSDT) reimburses mental health group services for Medicaid-eligible students. Group therapy sessions qualify at $50–120 per session depending on state. In high-poverty districts 40–70% of students are Medicaid-eligible — making BTG sessions substantially or fully reimbursable.
📋
Federal Grants
SAMHSA + ESSER
SAMHSA's School-Based Mental Health grant programs fund evidence-based group interventions directly. ESSER III funds (remaining balances) explicitly include mental health services as eligible expenditures. Both programs accept BTG's documented group therapy model as a qualifying use.
🏫
Title Funding
Title I + Title IV
Title I funds support comprehensive student support services in high-poverty schools. Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) specifically includes safe and healthy students activities — group mental health support qualifies. Most districts have unspent Title IV-A allocations.
Sara Whitley, LCSW Clinical Architect · Better Together · Compliance & Review Board

Every student deserves
more than 22 minutes.

We're not asking for a budget conversation. We're asking twenty minutes to show you what this looks like in practice — for your district, your students, your counselors.

Request a Demo → btgx.com
864.477.7991 · sara@b2gx.com · btgx.com · better-together.health
Source Basis
NCES CCD 2024–25 public enrollment (49.27M); KFF 2025 school-based mental health landscape; CDC 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (39.7% persistent sadness/hopelessness); ASCA 2023 School Counselor Ratio Report (408:1 national average); CDC child mental health data; Brookings child mental health program cost discussion. Key figures: 18% student use of school-based mental health services; 97% of schools offering at least one mental health service; 83% offering individual intervention; 65% offering group intervention. Revenue modeling assumes 8 sessions/year at $30/student. Medicaid EPSDT reimbursement rates from CMS state fee schedules 2024.