Social and emotional learning and mental health awareness arent new focuses in K-12 schools. In many public school districts and private schools, this has been intertwined for years with academics and student life.
But COVID-19 and more school shootings over the past couple of years have pushed further into the spotlight a view that students do best academically if they can handle whats going on inside and around them. Schoolchildren are now increasingly taught to manage their depression and anxiety, to collaborate and empathize, and are increasingly tied into a supportive community theyre told they can reach out to in a crisis.
But now, as schools face rising pressure to close learning gaps from the pandemic, theres a danger of social and emotional learning and student mental health slipping back into the shadows.
Last week, a new report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed the largest average nationwide decline in reading proficiency in more than three decades and the first-ever decline in math proficiency since test data was first tracked in the early 1970s. Calls to retrench on academics might get louder as standardized test data from 2022 further reveals the extent of the pandemic-driven learning slide at the state, national and local levels.
Schools cant do everythingand shouldnt be expected to. But we hope recent strides in social and emotional learning and student mental health will continue amid evidence of ongoing need. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, for instance, suicide remains the second-leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24 in the United States.
And here in Wisconsin, new data coming out this fall is likely to be a stark window into the toll the past couple of years have taken on student mental well-being.
Public school districts and private schools will see the results of the latest statewide Youth Risk Behavior Survey, taken in the fall of 2021. The survey has been administered every other year since 1993 to Wisconsins public and private middle and high school students. It asks questions about everything from family life and community engagement to sexual activity, drug and alcohol useand mental wellness.
Theres a broad range of views about whether it should fall to schools to develop the whole child or whether that should happen primarily at home and in other community settings.
In our view, school settings where kids congregate daily seem a natural space to talk openly about mental wellness. And the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Janesville School District appear to agree on that.
On its website, the DPI defines mental health as something that everyone has, from infancy to adulthood, that affects how people think, feel and act. It defines well-being as having positive emotions, feeling fulfillment, contributing to the community, and being able to cope with daily life stressors.
The DPI also has on its website a student mental health framework and encourages school districts to integrate mental well-being into all aspects of students school experience.
Gov. Tony Evers last week announced a new allocation of $15 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money for school mental health initiatives as part of an overall $90 million ARPA allocation to Wisconsin schools. Thats on top of $15 million allocated earlier this year. The governor said the goal is to ensure that all Wisconsin school districts can keep providing mental health support and services for students.
At the national level, the CDC has also placed importance on youth mental health. Among other resources, its website has a parental resource kit focused on ensuring children and young peoples social, emotional and mental wellbeing.
In addition to whats being offered in its classrooms, the Janesville School District has on its website an abundance of mental wellness information, including crisis hotline numbers, videos, self-care resources, tips on choosing a therapist, and a list of mental health links, apps and podcasts.
At a staff welcome event on Aug. 26, new Superintendent Mark Holzman said that while reading and math proficiency will be the top two focuses in the coming school year, student mental health will remain a priority.
We hope these efforts continue locally, statewide and nationally. Math and reading are critical, but so too is developing kids into resilient adults. School seems a perfect setting in which to do that.