The purpose of this presentation is to describe recent efforts among practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers to improve school mental health practice by fostering evaluation capacity among one group of school mental providers in one state. Specifically, this presentation will highlight the role of research, programs, and systemic alignment of resources in Missouri to build the evaluation capacity of professional school counselors. This presentation will include a description of state-wide tools, resources, and processes. In addition, this presentation will provide a description of the process of creating a survey to assess evaluation-related needs and resources amongst school counselors as well as initial results from a state-wide administration of the survey. These results will be presented in an evaluation capacity framework, with a focus on strengths and weaknesses of current practice. #2010Institute #mental #evaluation #capacity #school #health #Alcohol,DrugAbuse,andMentalHealth