First Lady Chirlane McCray’s $1 billion “ThriveNYC” mental-health program has failed to keep city students out of psych wards — and advocates are demanding something that actually works, The Post has learned.

The nearly $30 million that McCray’s controversial initiative pumped into the education system during the 2018-2019 school year did nothing to reduce the number of incidents for which cops were called and students were sent for psychiatric evaluations, official school safety data show.

The number — 3,547 — was unchanged from 2017-2018, even though ThriveNYC boosted its annual spending in city schools from $21.6 million to $29.2 million, according to a City Council financial document.

The disastrous results have led a coalition of 41 organizations — including Advocates for Children of New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society — to complain that ThriveNYC programs “do not provide direct, ongoing support to students in school.”

“They’re not working directly with students to help address the behavior. They’re not working directly with school staff, either,” said Dawn Yuster of Advocates for Children of New York.

Instead, the coalition is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to come up with $15 million in funding for a new program to provide one-on-one counseling for emotionally troubled students when they return to school in the fall.

The money, Yuster said, could come from “inefficiencies” in ThriveNYC’s budget, which critics have accused of failing to produce measurable results in helping New Yorkers cope with serious mental illness.

In addition to individual long-term counseling for the most troubled students, the coalition’s proposed “Mental Health Continuum” would providing coaching for teachers, family support and referrals to hospital-based mental health clinics.

Yuster said the plan was “ready to go” and would “meet the needs of students who need help the most.”

It would also help end the DOE’s practice of “continuing to call on the NYPD to remove thousands of them from class each year –- who sometimes even handcuff them as young as 5 years old,” she said.

Last week, de Blasio said his wife’s initiative would lead the effort to help students traumatized by the coronavirus pandemic when they return to school in September.

But Liz Haela, a special education teacher at Bronx middle school, said she wasn’t even aware that McCray’s program was in schools.

“Students will thrive if there are more service providers who can address their needs and develop relationships with them,” she told The Post.

McCray spokeswoman Siobhan Dingwall defended ThriveNYC’s work with city students and said additional assistance was planned.

“This administration has made historic investments in mental health and increased support in schools,” Dingwall said.

“We agree that we need to build upon this already significant work to ensure we are meeting the greater needs of students as they return to school. The Department of Education is developing a strategy, planning to meet with advocates in the coming week, and details of the plan will be shared soon.”

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