Four Major Concerns School-Based Mental Health Professionals Have for Students This Fall

Districts across the country are wrestling with fundamental questions about what schooling will look like this fall. Just as important as the logistics for safely educating our kids after a return to school is the state of their mental well-being. Effective schooling is possible only if districts anticipate the mental health challenges many of their students will undoubtedly face.

Duncan Young, CEO of Effective School Solutions, school-based mental health services and Linda Rosenberg, faculty member of  the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, recently surveyed dozens of school-based mental health professionals who are providing intensive, school-based support through virtual interactions with students and their families. They identified four major concerns for the fall.

Uncertainty about what school will look like. This will make it very difficult to effectively plan mental health initiatives for the fall, particularly because they must vary based on whether schools are open. If schools reopen, social anxiety and readjustment issues will be significant. Should remote learning continue, depression and isolation, as well as family and student concerns about lost academic progress, will become more prominent.

Lack of routine in students’ lives. The degree of structure in online learning has varied widely, and students — whose powers of executive function are still developing — have struggled with time management when they have not had the fixed metronome of a school schedule to set their daily cadence. A return to the classroom may be especially complicated, for example, for children with ADHD who may now be used to getting up and walking away from their computer whenever they feel frustrated or become distracted.

Social structures and norms. Clinicians responding to the survey predicted that reacclimating to the social aspects of school will be tough for many students. Self-esteem and social interactions will also be complicated due to an extended lack of in-person contact, and many students could see a rise in negative, attention-seeking behavior as they try to readjust.

School avoidance and refusal. The most common prediction was an increase in school refusal, a problem that occurs when anxiety or fear causes a student to chronically miss school. Many students who were previously school-avoidant have enjoyed the relatively stress-free environment of virtual learning, and it’s highly likely that districts will see this resistance in even more students, who pick up on their parents’ anxiety and apprehension.

To meet this unprecedented mental health challenge, districts must activate a powerful safety net that serves all students.

Excerpted from “Young & Rosenberg: 4 Major Concerns School-Based Mental Health Professionals Have for Students This Fall” in The 74. Read the full article in which Young and Rosenberg discuss the key characteristics of the safety districts must activate to meet this unprecedented mental health challenge.

Source: The 74 | Young & Rosenberg: 4 Major Concerns School-Based Mental Health Professionals Have for Students This Fall, https://www.the74million.org/article/young-rosenberg-4-major-concerns-school-based-mental-health-professionals-have-for-students-this-fall | ©2020 The 74 Media Inc

The 74 is a non-profit, non-partisan news site covering education in America. Our public education system is in crisis.

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