Although the public schools have been assigned, by law and circumstance, the task of educating and caring for most of the community's disturbed children, they have been granted no special facilities or funds for this mission and their teachers have not been adequately prepared for the responsibility. The author suggests that the natural opportunities within the schools for preventive efforts, cosefunding, and crisis intervention make them ideal as well as actual community mental health centers. The development of the Pittsburgh school mental health program is described as an experimental model.Abstract Teaser