Supporting our students' mental health
What are school-based mental health resources?
Access to mental health support in schools is vital to ensuring every student has the opportunity to do their best work and sets them up for success later in life.
Important mental health resources for students fall along the continuum of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and are pieced together by a variety of services, programs, partnerships, and funding sources. This puzzle includes the prioritization of social-emotional learning and mental-health curriculums that build awareness and destigmatization of mental challenges, access to specialized staff like nurses, social workers, psychologists and counselors who can spend 1-on-1 time with students to work through obstacles like family conflict or abuse, and connection to therapeutic services for higher needs and mental health challenges. Access to these supports promotes mental health, allows for early intervention, reduces stigma, and supports academic success as well as safe and positive school climates.
Evidence supports the urgent need for greater investments in student mental health
Students are navigating a mental health crisis:
- According to the 2023 Virginia Youth Survey conducted by the Department of Health, 33% of high school students in Virginia experienced persistent sadness, characterized by feeling so sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row.
- Student groups dealing with the highest rates of persistent sadness included female Hispanic students, female mixed race students,, and LGBTQ+ students.
- According to the same study, 17% of Virginia high school students in 2023 seriously considered suicide, 13% made a plan about how they would attempt suicide, 7% attempted suicide.
- JLARC’s 2022 report on COVID-19’s impact on public K-12 education called student mental health issues “concerningly prevalent” with half of middle school students and nearly two thirds of high school students reporting feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge.
- According to The Shape of Youth Mental Health in Virginia, half (47 percent) of students who attend public middle or high school in the state reported having a mental health need in the current or past-year.
Virginia schools are not adequately equipped to support student mental health:
- In comparison to pre-pandemic times, roughly a third of school districts are reporting a shortage of qualified mental health staff, impacting their ability to deliver daily services effectively to students.
- School mental health practitioners (SMHP), our school counselors, school psychologists and school social workers, are at the front-lines of supporting students and addressing student mental and behavioral health needs; and have named continued capacity challenges on the ground to meet the youth mental health crisis in schools.
- Virginia schools employ far fewer mental health staff than staffing levels recommended by national associations. Additional school counselors, psychologists, and social workers would have a substantial positive impact on addressing issues with student mental health and well-being.
- Many school divisions leverage community-based partnerships to meet internal capacity challenges and help build out school-based mental health programming.
- There are limits on state funds given to schools for school-based mental health programming that make it difficult for them to use the money in the ways that best benefit their students. This can limit a school’s ability to employ more SMHPs and support community-based partnerships.
What works to improve student mental health outcomes?
When we prioritize student’s mental health, it allows them to focus on their classes and prepare for life after graduation. Schools are an important place to provide mental health supports for students because it’s where they spend most of their time and provides a framework for support that extends beyond the classroom. It’s time for Virginia lawmakers to ensure that every student has access to mental health support they need by:
- Increasing funding for the School-Based Mental Health Integration Program and building in greater flexibility to allow schools to invest in partnerships with community-based providers, hire additional mental health professionals, and offer resources such as calming spaces for students. Even in the early stages of this program school officials have seen improvements in student stress and anxiety. Prior to the 2024 General Assembly Session, funding from this program was awarded to 23 school divisions across the state to integrate school-based mental health programming and community-based partnerships.
- School divisions across the state have vastly unique needs, local funding streams, and capacity to build out school-based mental health programming. Flexible funding allows schools to decide how best to serve their students within their unique communities.
- Increasing utilization and serviceability of Medicaid billing and reimbursement in schools by establishing a Medicaid Billing Support Program within the Virginia Department of Education.