Welcome to bryt:

Partnering with schools and families to promote healing, wellness, and academic success for teens returning from prolonged absences.

One in every five U.S. adolescents has a serious mental health condition and 10 percent will experience extended absences from school. For these students, school re-entry can be overwhelming, fraught with problems including depression, anxiety, and fear of social rejection. These youth disproportionately struggle, attempt suicide, abuse alcohol and drugs, and function poorly at home, in the classroom, and among friends. They are at high risk for academic failure and their families are often in crisis, as well. The challenge of recovery while managing typical adolescent social and academic pressures can lead to a high rate of relapse. Up to half of students with serious mental health disorders drop out of high school.

bryt (pronounced “bright”) is changing that reality. Its pioneering model of innovative school bridge programs equips schools to provide short-term intervention, improve student outcomes, get 85% or more of students back to their regular academic schedule, and bring dropout rates as low as 8%.

Each bryt intervention approaches staffing, space, and services with a consistent vision, while customizing the specifics for each school population and student. Dating back to the establishment of the original bryt Program in 2004 at Brookline High School, the rapidly-growing bryt Network now includes 270+ schools across the U.S., collectively enrolling 140,000+ students. Generating clear benefits to schools and families, bryt strives to become recognized as a best practice throughout Massachusetts and, ultimately, across the country.

The Brookline Center’s bryt Team receives generous support from local, regional, and national foundations, including the C.F. Adams Charitable Trust, Cabot Foundation, Cummings Foundation, the Klarman Family Foundation, the MetroWest Health Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Additionally, bryt received legislative support in 2024 allowing expansion to high need areas of the state where schools/districts did not have financial resources to sustain bryt with fidelity. Since then, 2/3 of Massachusetts public school students attend a school where bryt is available if they need it.