This introductory packet provides an overview of what the term "Mental Health in Schools" means. The packet discusses how school-based and school-linked programs have been developed for purposes of early intervention, crisis intervention and prevention, treatment, and promotion of positive social and emotional development. It asserts that advancing mental health in schools is about much more than expanding services and creating full service schools. It is about establishing comprehensive, multifaceted approaches that help ensure schools are caring and supportive places that maximize learning and well being and strengthen students, families, schools, and neighborhoods. The packet contains the following sections: (1) Mental Health in Schools: An Overview; (2) Executive Summary--Mental Health in Schools: Guidelines, Models, Resources, and Policy Considerations; (3) Impediments to Enhancing Availability of Mental Health Services on Schools: Fragmentation, Overspecialization, Counterproductive Competition, and Marginalization; (4) Mental Health in Schools: A Sampling of References; and (5) Assuring No Child Is Left Behind: Strengthening the Approach of School and Community for Addressing Barriers to Student Learning. (GCP)