Kirsten Whitaker

Professor Sandra Riley

ENG 1201

March 20th, 2022

How is Mental Health Handled in Schools?

Mental health has become an important concern in the past few years now. It’s an issue

that is worldwide and needs to be addressed with the appropriate levels of seriousness and

concern. Thankfully new steps have been taken to understand mental illnesses better, along with

bringing awareness to the classroom and offering support when needed. However, such things

were not always accessible as they are now.

Schools were first created all the way back in 1635. The concept of mental health didn’t

exist until 1908, back when psychiatric professionals wished to help improve the conditions and

treatment of those with mental disorders. Even after that mental health didn’t become a learning

subject in schools until 1984 under the Assembly Bill 3632, making it a requirement for schools

to provide services for students in need. It’s been nearly 40 years since this bill was passed, and

even now with improved medical treatment mental health is still an issue today. Considering

what we know about mental illnesses now, how prevalent is mental health in daily life? Another

good question being how is mental health treated in schools in the U.S.?
 As of late, the need for professional help in schools regarding mental health has

skyrocketed during the pandemic. The drastic changes to daily lives has impacted everyone

worldwide, typical day-to-day routines just weren’t as feasible as they used to be. Schools in the

U.S. are no exemption to this change, having to immediately switch to online learning while

trying to gauge just how long students must stay home before they are able to return. Of course,

while there are plenty of students who have benefited from staying home and learning remotely,

others began suffering greatly from these changes as their mental health started to take a steep

decline “In a 2020 survey of 1,000 parents around the country...71% of parents said the

pandemic had taken a toll on their child’s mental health, and 69% said the pandemic was the

worst thing to happen to their child.” (APA).

One contributing factor to this decline can be linked to the fact that because of being kept

away from school, students also lose their connections to counselors and mental health workers

that all districts provide for any support a student may need. All schools are required to provide

any support and tools necessary for students to succeed, providing help to those in need due to

any mental illness they suffer included. Typically, it is recommended that there is 1 school

psychologist per 500 students. Unfortunately, there are plenty of disparities between mental

health services, and some lower economic background students have even lower rates of

counselors and school psychologists in their districts (APA). These disparities create an unfair

situation for those in need of help, as stated before all schools need to have the necessary tools to

provide students on their respective paths to succeed in life.

 Thankfully, due to the pandemic relief funds have been granted to schools in order to

combat the growing mental health crisis. The funds are now able to give power to schools across

the U.S. in helping students that struggle with mental health “The pandemic relief to schools

totals $190 billion, more than four times the amount the Education Department typically spends

on K-12 schools annually.” (Thompson). With this money granted, schools have been taking

measures to get a wider range of services to offer students in school to meet any needs that a

student might have. “Public schools must be equipped with the resources to hire full-time school-

based mental health professionals that can provide one-on-one and small-group mental health

interventions to students surviving trauma.” (Naik). Along with being able to hire new

counselors and psychologists, schools are also able to provide teachers with the appropriate

training required to be able to assist their students better by recognizing signs that their students

may be struggling with their mental health, therefore getting them the help they need quicker.

Of course, while schools are bettering themselves for the sake of their students’ well-

being, this crisis in mental health cannot be solved by just themselves. Experts can testify that for

the betterment of all suffering from mental illness that it becomes a group effort involving

families, communities, and the health care system (NPR). The more support from the outside, the

more schools will be capable of creating significant progress without worry of having to

backtrack. After all, with students spending hours of their days inside schools, it’s important for

schools to tackle these issues, for they can be crucial to students in their growth. “At the

community level, schools could measure the ripple effects of mental health interventions through

school climate and culture evaluations.” (Naik). Schools can gather data that measures what each
 district needs the most, as well as reporting their findings to their respective states for further

assistance in what should be done to better school life for students.

Steps have been taken in this direction already, as some states already have created new

laws in favor of students that struggle with mental health and becoming aware of what needs to

be taken care of to create equality for all students so that they can succeed with a fair chance. For

example, Illinois and Nevada have passed laws allowing public school students to take mental

health days in the school year when needed (APA). Colorado has had Medicaid cover school-

based mental health care for all students enrolled, Kansas is praised for creating a ‘School

Mental Health Advisory Council’, and New Jersey investing $1 million in 2021 to do regular

wellness screenings (NPR). Even lower rated schools have begun adopting mental health into

their curriculars in order to give students the opportunity to learn about mental health for better

understanding of the subject.

Schools still have a long way to go on the way to create equal environments for students

all over the U.S., but comfort lies in the fact that these steps are being taken in the first place.

While Covid was a devastation to mental health, hope lies in the funds granted to schools that

allow them to afford what they lacked before. Hopefully as the years pass, mental health will

gain even more acknowledgement than before. This rising awareness will help thousands upon

thousands of students in learning just what mental health entails, and how to tackle the issues

that come with any struggle they may face. Schools providing the right tools and resources for
this situation will allow students to better themselves and give them the proper encouragement to

continue on with the best they are capable of managing.

Works Cited

Abramson, Ashley. “Children’s mental health is in crisis” American Psychological

Association, Vol. 53, no. 1, 2022.

Chatterjee, Rhitu. “State by state, here’s how well schools are doing at supporting kids’
mental health” npr, 16 February 2022.

Naik, Prachi. “When Trauma-Informed Pedagogy Is Not Enough: The Need for Increased
School-Based Mental Health Services in Public Schools” Harvard Kennedy School Review,
Vol.19, p66-69, 2019.
https://eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=8af46504-bcee-46ea-b24a-
0b6e0d1937c1%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=136334236&db=poh
Accessed 20 March 2022.

Thompson, Carolyn. “U.S. Schools Take on a Bigger Role in Student Mental Health” Undark,
16 November 2021.

“How Can We Improve School-Based Mental Health Support?” Jordan Wells, YouTube,
uploaded by TEDx Talks, 23 Jan 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJehaP8DS9k Accessed 20 March 2022.