Youth mental health: Are schools prepared for the upcoming year?
Photo: Kenny Eliason | Unsplash
By Kristen A. Schmitt
With school bells ringing and buses dropping off students, there’s a level of pre-pandemic normalcy blanketing this year’s back to school season. Many districts have loosened mask mandates and regular COVID testing requirements. Remote learning, social distancing and mandatory quarantines are mostly practices of the past. However, there is still a lingering issue brought to light by the pandemic: the state of youth mental health and the rise in anxiety, stress, depression and, unfortunately, suicide.
A recent report found that educators and mental health professionals ranked mental and emotional health as top priorities for the upcoming school year – higher than cyber bullying and, even, school safety. And schools are doing more than just taking notes. Many have revamped their pre-pandemic game plans to provide support services not just to students, but also to teachers, administrators and staff in an effort to curb the longer-lasting impacts of isolation, academic delays and increased mental health issues.
“We are finally beginning to recognize that school is more than just teaching the kids reading, writing and arithmetic,” said Dan Domenech, executive director of the national School Superintendents Association (AASA).
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), providing mental health services in schools remove barriers like transportation issues, scheduling conflicts and stigmas for students who need them. Further, school-based mental health services are conducted by trained mental health professionals who are also school district employees like school psychologists, school counselors, school social workers and school nurses.
However, it’s not all one-size-fits-all with regard to how school districts approach mental health. A recent PEW study found that schools with larger enrollment numbers offered more mental health services than those with smaller student bodies, and that 61% of city and 60% of suburban schools offered mental health assessments compared to only 45% of rural schools.
Regardless of the hurdles ahead of us, the fact remains that youth mental health will continue to be a priority in schools. There have been some positive steps forward for the 2022 school year:
The Biden administration recently announced over $500 million for mental health services in schools in addition to federal and state money already in place to boost mental health programs and support due to pandemic-era needs.
If you live in Washington, California, Illinois, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, Arizona, Nevada, Utah or Kentucky, your child can take a mental health day just like they would sick days. Similar bills have been proposed in Florida, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggest a few ways schools and educators can promote positive mental health and well-being in the classroom this fall:
Keep staff, parents and students educated on symptoms and ways to get help for mental health problems.
Create a positive, safe and inclusive school environment.
Teach and reinforce positive behaviors and decision-making that can extend beyond the classroom.
Need some resources?
Classroom WISE, which is a collaboration between the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network and the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH), offers a free three-part training package that assists K-12 educators and school staff in supporting the mental health of students in the classroom.
The SHAPE System, which was developed by NCSMH and AASA, helps school districts improve upon mental health initiatives.
And if you don’t have a mental health program in place, you can advocate for one in your school district using this reference sheet.
You can also learn more about mental health issues related to youth and teens by viewing some of our past programs:
Need more tips? Check out NAMI’s Fall 2022 Back to School Resources.