Mental Health is the First Step for K-12 Success

How the right tools can help administrators help their students

While we so often refer to the phrase “children are our future,” the statistics surrounding mental health in the K-12 public school system tell a different story — a story of lack of access to mental health services and an abundance of trauma. 46% of kids in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic event. That means almost half of our country’s kids are walking around processing an extremely complicated experience, likely without the tools and emotional support to do so. 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14. Not only are youth navigating puberty, social dynamics, personal identity, academic success, and concerns for the future, but almost half of them are managing an emerging diagnosable mental health issue! Teenage years are already complex without considering that our public perception of mental health issues is woefully uninformed. Mental health conditions are common among youth, and mental health disorders are the most common illnesses of childhood. These are just facts — how we recognize, consider, and propose solutions is the critical next step.

How can we help?

Youth have limited touchpoints for emotional support, most prominent of which are parents/family, community/neighbors/churches, and school. Because not all families are created equal — and it’s impossible to make sure kids have access to community resources — the best place to reach youth is at school. Schools are by far the best place to deliver mental health resources. With few exceptions (that require a completely different set of societal problem-solving questions), all kids are in schools, whether in person or virtually. Not all schools are well-positioned to offer the level of support they should, but still remain the safest havens for many students with less-than-ideal circumstances.

Recognizing this, we can provide solutions that integrate into our school’s existing systems and networks to do two things; 1) provide necessary support to youth and 2) relieve the burden on our overtaxed, underpaid teachers/counselors/administrations.

Our people need better support!

Schools have counselors, social workers, school psychologists, and caring teachers — there’s an educated, trained, and ultimately caring group of individuals whose purpose is to support the emotional wellbeing of students! However, our school counselors are overburdened and underserved, battling rising mental health issues due to anxiety, fear, and loneliness brought on by COVID-19’s repercussions. In California, there are over 600 students for every one counselor (compared to the 250-to-1 ratio recommended by the American School Counselors Association). This understaffing leads to a lack of ability to monitor mental health needs as they arise, leaving little time (or energy) to intervene in real-time when they do.

How can we expect our emotional supporters in public schools to proactively support the emotional wellbeing of students when they’re reactively putting out yesterday’s fires or reacting to unexpected behavioral issues?

Schools desperately need a way to gauge the mental health needs of their students both in real-time (for immediate individual support) and over time (for systemic support).

Taking the first big step

There are huge issues to tackle when trying to fix K-12 education in the US — a utopian vision of education, mental health support, interpersonal growth, creativity, and more is hard to imagine with the overwhelmed education system and lack of funding that causes overcrowding and administrative strife. So we take a big first step. Implement new systems, adopt new tools, and move forward.

Schools desperately need a way to gauge the mental health needs of their students both in real-time (for immediate individual support) and over time (for systemic support). It’s standard practice to take a “snapshot” survey twice a year and make changes based on that — but think back to when you were a kid yourself! The years feel so long, your emotional states so fragile and ever-changing, your mental health from day-to-day inconsistent. Schools need to know how their students are feeling, how well they’ve slept, whether or not they’ve eaten, what their energy levels are, and if they’re struggling at home or with their peer group. The biophysical, psychological, and social states of students fluctuate greatly, but there’s one way we can catch consistent issues:

Daily mental health check-ins

All of those things inform how students show up and participate (or not) at school, and let administrators know what their needs are, on an individual level. Daily check-ins can be as simple as a whiteboard with post-it notes separated into broad categories or as complex and detailed as a program like Closegap. We can use daily check-ins to monitor the day-to-day; cut students a break, understand their mental state, pre-screen for counselors who can’t possibly track the daily mental health of 600+ students who might need one trusted adult to talk to. Or even just a place to vent. It allows educators the opportunity for personal connection and a little more individual care. In some cases, school counselors are informed by self-reporting from students that they need more support, whether they’re struggling with hunger or reporting self-harm ideation; an intervention, a crisis evaluation, a helping hand can be offered. When we track the data over time, systemic issues become clear as day; do students need more access to food, sleep, or other resources? Once we know, we can implement solutions!

More than ever, tools for daily check-ins are an essential part of an administration’s broader mental health toolkit. The first step in getting K-12 schools well-positioned to offer effective mental health support and resources is understanding the needs of its students. Looking at the state of public schools now, we have to ask ourselves; if it’s not working, what can we do? What’s the first step? Once we take it, we’re ready for the next step, and the one after that. Before you know it, we’ll be running.