Mental health services continue to gain additional focus and momentum in the United States. The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health recognized the critical role schools can play in the continuum of mental health services. The commission's final report, "Achieving the Promise, Transforming Mental Health Care in America (2003)", emphasized building a mental health system that is evidence-based, recovery-focused and consumer- and family-driven. Based on that report and in partnership with other key federal agencies, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) developed and issued a "Federal Mental Health Action Agenda" (2005) that emphasized initiation of a national and focused effort on mental health services for children to promote early intervention for those at risk of mental disorders and to identify strategies to appropriately serve children in relevant service systems. In November 2005, SAMHSA released "School Mental Health Services" in the United States (Foster, Rollefson, Doksum, Noonan, Robinson & Teich, 2005), a report based on its national survey of school mental health services in 2002-2003. This Project Forum document synthesizes relevant data from this 2005 SAMHSA report and focuses particularly on an overview of mental health services, funding issues and the implications for designing policy and implementing practices in schools. It is particularly intended for special education policymakers at the state and local levels. (Contains 1 table and 6 footnotes.)