By Turnaround for Children, Photo: Alison Shelly/EDUimages, Turnaround for Children, February 17, 2022
In communities across the country, students and the adults who teach, support, and care for them are struggling under the weight of more than two years of uncertainty, fear, and lack of safety from the COVID-19 pandemic. BIPOC families have disproportionately experienced some of the most disruptive impacts due to the pervasive context of systemic racism, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The stress of the pandemic has been particularly hard on young people. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association have declared a National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
To support students and school communities through the current crisis, we should adopt an approach that is both responsive and proactive. How might we leverage our understanding of the roots of this crisis to point toward solutions—both at the level of our systems and in the context of our relationships to young people?
Turnaround for Children is highlighting four priorities from whole-child design, along with practical tools and resources for educators and school staff, to both address the current crisis and make a down payment on the long-term changes that are needed to address children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and academic needs, right now and in the future—so they can thrive.
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