(with S. Zhang , B. Erten , P. Keskin , B. Sampaio , and A. Fonseca)
October 2025 submitted
We present the first causal evidence that large-scale provision of public mental health services improves educational outcomes for children. We exploit the roll-out of Juvenile Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS), which were introduced as a community-based substitute for inpatient mental healthcare, across municipalities in Brazil. Using unique nationwide data linking multiple large administrative datasets, we find that these centers increased the provision of mental health services for children through public outpatient care. Following a juvenile CAPS opening, children in treated municipalities experienced an increase in their probability of remaining enrolled in school by up to 1.6 percentage points. These effects are concentrated among children from relatively more disadvantaged backgrounds, with mothers who have not completed high school and who live in lower-income municipalities. The increases in enrollment are more pronounced for boys, who are twice as likely to receive treatment and at younger ages due to the early onset of the mental conditions they typically experience. Our findings indicate that providing accessible mental health services through community-based centers can significantly enhance educational outcomes for children.