High school students in Chicago head down the stairs between classes, June 2023. (Getty/Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service)
By Paige Shoemaker DeMio, Center for American Progress, October 4, 2023
Across the country, students, parents, and teachers face the realities of a student mental health crisis. Many look to schools for solutions, yet on their own, schools often do not have the resources necessary to provide comprehensive mental health services. This issue brief outlines how state governments can support schools in best serving their students and addressing the student mental health crisis.
The student mental health crisis
Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, student mental health was an increasingly alarming issue. Rates of childhood mental health concerns and suicide rose steadily over the past decade, and by 2018, suicide became the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10–24. From 2016 to 2019, anxiety diagnoses among children ages 3–17 rose by 27 percent, and depression diagnoses among the same age group rose by 24 percent. The pandemic only intensified this crisis, as students faced isolation, uncertainty, and loss. Mental health-related visits to the emergency department increased by 24 percent for children ages 5–11 and 31 percent for children ages 12–17. In the face of this reality, educators are noting an unprecedented number of students with trauma, and parents across the nation are listing mental health concerns as their top worry for their children.
State of school supports
K-12 public schools, given their daily interaction with children, can provide an optimal environment to screen for and provide mental health services. In fact, children are nearly just as likely to receive mental health services in an education setting as they are from a specialty mental health provider. However, in the 2019-20 school year, only 55 percent of public schools provided students with diagnostic mental health assessments, and only 42 percent offered mental health treatment.
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