Support for students with mental health and academic problems remains to be one major concern of the Philippine educational system, particularly in the public schools. While the Philippine Mental Health Law stipulates that the state shall: "ensure integration of the mental health into the educational system", and make available "timely, affordable and high quality and culturally-appropriate mental health care", no guidelines and programs have yet been developed by the educational system to properly screen and identify students who may be at-risk of mental health problems. Universal screening is recognized as one basic component of a comprehensive and effective school mental health program. This reports the development of the Child and Adolescent Risk Screener (CARS), a pioneer universal mental health screening for K-12 grade students in the Philippine public schools. A chronicle of the test development process of the CARS employing an exploratory mixed-methods approach will be shared : the rationale and conceptualization of the CARS, content domain and factor structure, comprehensive psychometric properties, and social validity. Development of CARS was supported by the Unilab Foundation-Philippines.