A different approach

Since I’ve learned that at least a third of students in my college classrooms are struggling with mental health, I’ve I teach. I have altered my courses to seek out pockets of wonder, simultaneously supporting learning and well-being.

In my 300-person course with pre-med students, I no longer only teach through lecturing. Instead, I emphasize our humanity and curiosity, while also teaching very difficult content. I provide a solid structure, emphasize that everyone belongs and ask them to teach each other. I use real-world situations and games, give students choice within their assignments and offer opportunities for reflection.

And yes, I use a traditional grading system.

Learning can require persistence and struggle, and no one benefits from a classroom without challenge. But struggle and dread aren’t the same thing.

Does stress belong in learning? Maybe, maybe not.

The first step is recognizing that the U.S. built an education system that runs on stress — not because we meant to, but because most people did not notice.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid at the end of the day Thursday in the , ordering the company to pay $567 million for an abatement fund to address the harms it has done to the state’s youth.

The case, which ended with written closing arguments in mid-June centered on the New Mexico Department of Justice’s allegations that Meta’s platforms — including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — constitute a “public nuisance” to teen health within the state. Among its list of demands, NMDOJ requested the court order the company to operate differently for its youth users; issue monetary relief; and appoint an independent monitor.

The jury-less bench trial followed a finding Meta violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, and misled the public on the risks of its sites for underage users’ mental health and risk of sexual exploitation. The verdict, which Meta said it would appeal, ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages.

In his decision, Biedscheid said Meta’s obligations to the abatement fund would last for five years, and include written reports on a semiannual basis as to the status and progress of its compliance with each of the abatement measures the court ordered.

In a news release Thursday evening, the New Mexico Department of Justice said the court’s order “requires real, structural changes, not just promises, and provides the resources New Mexico needs to begin repairing the damage caused by Meta’s conduct.”

The case, Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement, “has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence. Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.”

In a statement provided to Source NM by a Meta spokesperson, the company says it disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal. “We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content,” the statement said. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com.

Gov. Josh Stein, alongside the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Secretary Dev Sangvai and leadership at Broughton Hospital, within state government on July 16.

The Division of State Operated Healthcare Facilities Skills, Training and Employment Pathways North Carolina (STEP-NC) is a partnership between NCDHHS, , and the (NCBCE), according to .

STEP-NC serves “high school students, adult learners, and new talent,” creating a pipeline for these individuals to enter “vital roles in health care to strengthen the workforce in North Carolina’s health care system, including state health facilities, and meet mental health needs in North Carolina,” said the .

“This partnership is one example of the efforts underway to boost the health care workforce in our state,” Sangvai said in the press release. “This initiative creates pipelines for clinical and non-clinical positions that keep our health systems running, supporting careers spanning from maintenance professionals to nurses.”

This summer, six recent high school graduates participated in the first program cohort by working as pre-apprentices at two Morganton-based facilities: , a state psychiatric hospital, and , a state developmental center. These students are being trained in the behavioral health and maintenance technician fields. Upon their completion of this program, the students may apply for a registered apprenticeship in their desired field.

Health care shortages in NC

Similar to , North Carolina’s health care capacity is projected to decline over the next several years. Currently, the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis rates the state’s at 84%, with that adequacy dropping to 78% by 2033.

Furthermore, that North Carolina will have a shortage of nearly 12,500 registered nurses (RN) and 5,000 licensed practical nurses (LPN) by the year 2033. In 2024, NCDHHS designated counties as having a health care professional shortage in the field of mental health.

Apprenticeship programs like STEP-NC help fill those gaps by creating pathways for people looking to enter the field, allowing them to “earn while they learn” and gain hands-on experience under the supervision of experienced mentors.

“We are facing a critical shortage of health care workers in North Carolina, especially in our state-operated facilities. STEP-NC cultivates a sustainable workforce pipeline starting as early as high school,” Stein said in the press release. “Through this program, students can qualify for free tuition, learn new skills, and jump-start their careers — all while helping North Carolina become safer and healthier.”

The program is also in line with Stein’s , which committed the state to strengthening the behavioral health crisis and criminal justice systems. It also “advances the goals of the Governor’s Council on Workforce and Apprenticeships to reduce state vacancy rates and double the number of apprentices statewide,” according to the press release.

What’s in the future for STEP-NC?

According to the , NCDHHS aims to expand apprenticeship programs across all state-operated facilities.

Right now, the program is only operating at two facilities through , which is a program “open to graduating seniors from Burke County Public Schools sponsored by .” Opt-In combines community mentorship, professional development, and work experience to “increase post-secondary credential attainment in Burke County.”

“The apprenticeship model responds to critical workforce needs by creating a tailored pathway supporting both employee growth and long-term retention,” CEO of Broughton Hospital Dr. Timothy Miller said in the press release. “This program allows students to find rewarding job opportunities close to home that align with their career interests. Health care facilities like ours offer many different career options, from direct care jobs like nursing to administrative support functions to maintenance.”

Sullivan emphasized the benefit of the program being tuition-free and local, allowing participants to pursue careers in skilled trades and health care in their own communities with no debt. This “means the workforce caring for our neighbors is coming from our neighborhoods,” Sullivan said.

The interest form for STEP-NC is available .

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During Pride month last year, almost 70,000 LGBTQ+ young people sought specialized help from 988, the national suicide and crisis hotline. 

That was the last time they were able to do so. 

As of today, it’s been a year since the 988 hotline’s LGBTQ+ youth services shut down. The Trump administration says it is working to bring back “Option 3” — the line’s former place in the menu — by the end of 2026, but that timeline is not guaranteed.

The “Option 3” LGBTQ+ line was discontinued because federal funding for the service ran out, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA. But Congress approved $33 million to reinstate federal services for LGBTQ+ youth, including this one, months ago. Republicans and Democrats are calling for the Trump administration to restore the line now — not by the end of the year. 

“Saving lives should not be a partisan issue,” Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, said at a press conference earlier this week. “988 is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It was built with specialized options for people more at risk.” 

LGBTQ+ youth are significantly more likely to attempt suicide and have depression than other young adults. Many are rejected by their families or experience additional discrimination and bullying. They may only feel safe talking with someone they know will understand their LGBTQ+ identity; that’s why specialized resources matter. 

There are still other resources, like the LGBT National Hotline at 888-843-4564 and the LGBT National Youth Talkline at 800-246-7743. There’s also the Trans Lifeline, reachable at 877-565-8860. The 988 website still has a for LGBTQ+ people and allies, too. 

In to members of Congress, SAMHSA cites White House policy as a complicating factor in restoring the “Option 3” line. Executive order 14168, of President Donald Trump’s second term, rejects transgender identity and directs federal agencies to fall in line with that belief. 

So the agency is trying to reinstate a service for LGBTQ+ youth while still complying with a White House order excluding transgender people from federal policy.

The Trevor Project, a leading LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention organization that co-piloted the original 988 “Option 3” launch, is deeply concerned about that. 

“If these services do not include transgender youth, which is one of the groups at highest risk for suicide in the country, even higher than overall LGBTQ+ youth, then these are not LGBTQ+ youth specialized services, full stop,” said Mark Henson, vice president of advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project. 

The group has its own : call 1-866-488-7386 or text ‘START’ to 678-678.

SAMHSA is working with Vibrant Emotional Health, the 988 network administrator, to resume specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth by the end of the year, a spokesperson with the Health and Human Services Department said over email. They offered no further comment. 

Although specialized service will return eventually, it may not be the same as before. The Trevor Project has been shut out of the rebuilding process, despite the fact that by the time “Option 3” was shut down, the group was handling roughly half of all traffic.

And there was a lot of traffic. Over 1.5 million people used the 988 service for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults during the three years it was active, according to data from SAMHSA. Year after year, more people reached out for help. That escalation shows the dire need for LGBTQ+ mental health services, Henson said. 

“The mental health crisis among LGBTQ+ youth in the country is continuing to worsen,” he said; and politics is making it worse. Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and debates over transgender rights across the country are causing anxiety among young people, by the Trevor Project shows. 

The president and his administration are also a recurrent source of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. That often translates into crisis among LGBTQ+ youth: when the 2024 presidential race was called for Trump, the Trevor Project saw an overnight in calls, texts and chats on its own hotlines, compared to prior weeks.

The Trevor Project has applied to provide services for the restored “Option 3,” but has not yet gotten confirmation if it will be eligible to do so. The problem is that the organization is not a current member of the 988 network after the Trump administration shut down the “Option 3” LGBTQ+ line last year. 

Regardless, Henson said, their experts are ready to help.

was originally reported by Orion Rummler of . .

As Texas schools face at least $600 million in federal funding cuts, multiple mental health programs, particularly those implemented in response to the pandemic and mass shootings, are at risk of losing funding.

School programs focused on chronic absenteeism, mental wellness and crisis services that were created in response to the Uvalde school shooting, as well as social workers and counselors, could all be on the chopping block.

Texas schools rely heavily on federal funding to support mental health programs. Data shows that two federal programs that are of being cut or account for 86% of the school mental health funding for more than 2,500 campuses statewide, according to Mental Health America of Greater Houston.

Bracing also for the impending expiration of COVID-19 relief funding, school districts and advocacy groups this legislative session had pushed for more money through a dedicated funding source for school mental health, but lawmakers did not approve it.

Currently, such funding is combined with school safety in the so-called school safety allotment in the state school funding formula, and school districts tend to prioritize the allotment on school security.

“I don’t want to get into a situation where I am asking, do I hire a police officer or do I hire a counselor? I want them both,” said Adrian Johnson, superintendent for the Hearne school district.

The funding cuts and lack of progress on getting a statewide dedicated funding stream for mental health comes at a time when . The special legislative session starts July 21, but Gov. Greg Abbott has not assigned school mental health as a directive to lawmakers.

The funding crisis

Created in response to Uvalde, the federal helps fund two grant programs in Texas, the and the . The former implements mental health training and support in 60 high-needs districts and the latter helps 98 public school districts with case management tools that identify struggling students, as well as mental health personnel.

Almost three years later, the Safer Communities Act is losing over $1 billion spread across the country. Funds that were supposed to last until 2027 are expected to dry up by the end of this year.

This cut puts programs like , which deploys evidence-based mental health resources in three Central Texas school districts, at risk. The state homed in on those school districts because of their higher rates of community impacts from the pandemic and high rates of population growth.

The cut to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is just one in a series of proposed changes to federal funding for public education that will impact how mental health is addressed in schools.

According to an analysis from the , the freezing of five other federal programs that support public schools are expected to result in the withholding of approximately $600 million from Texas, more than 16.1% of the state’s federal K-12 funding. These funds have been used for a variety of services such as English language instruction and literacy, but also after school programs and summer programs focused on mental wellness.

Medicaid and CHIP are also facing cuts in the federal spending bill passed earlier this month, and both provide each year to school districts and local mental health authorities, enabling them to hire and retain mental health providers, offer preventive mental health screenings, and support students with disabilities using specialized services.

Separately, COVID-19 funds are set to expire this year , forcing some smaller schools to lay off staff or find alternative ways to keep the social workers and counselors hired during the pandemic.

The confluence of these cuts come as Texas lawmakers missed opportunities to properly fund school mental health this year.

During the legislative session that ended in June, Texas lawmakers agreed on a robust that adds $8.5 billion to the state’s public school system. However, most of it has been earmarked for teacher pay; with roughly $250 million being set aside for school support staff and mental health support staff are not necessarily included in the pay raise.

Over 70% of the schools that sustainable funding for school-based mental health staff and professional school counselors was the main barrier to having adequate resources to address student mental health needs, according to a survey of 2,690 schools by the .

“We are hopeful that this will translate to more dollars for mental health. But without any legislation currently earmarking those dollars, that is not a guarantee,” Rebecca Fowler, the director of public policy and government affairs at Mental Health America of Greater Houston, said about the new school funding.

In 2023, wrote to the Texas Legislature, urging the creation and funding of a separate “student mental health allotment” because programs were not reaching enough students.

Only 13% of schools used the school safety allotment for mental health supports, according to the

by Rep. , D-Dallas, attempted to secure dedicated mental health funds, but it did not pass this year.

“Uncertainty around different funding streams makes it hard to navigate these conversations about the future of mental health and young people,” said Kate Murphy, director of child protection policy for Texans Care for Children.

Changing conversations

After the devastating school shootings in Uvalde and Santa Fe compelled lawmakers to prioritize mental health, such support has waned in the last few years. Mental health advocates have pointed the blame at the culture war happening in the Capitol, namely that lawmakers have suggested mental health programs in schools are diagnosing children and reinforcing LGBTQ identities without parental consent.

For example, by Sen. , R-Brenham, would have required parental consent for any psychological or psychiatric examination, testing, or treatment conducted on a student by a school employee. The bill had eight senators as sponsors, and although it died in the less conservative Texas House, it demonstrates the shift in the legislative conversation surrounding school mental health.

“I don’t think there is a uniform understanding of the role of behavioral health in public schools. Who should be providing support? When should support happen?” Seth Winick, director of the , said.

Johnson, the Hearne superintendent, said he understands parents’ concerns but says schools are the best place to address mental health issues for Texas families who might not have the income or time to schedule mental health services. Until a better solution is proposed, school mental health needs support, he said.

“We have students pre-K through 12 sitting in the school system for 180 plus days a year, and we should take advantage of that by not only giving them a strong educational foundation but a strong mental health foundation,” he said.

What does the future hold?

Without federal funding support, school districts will have to get creative in addressing mental wellness within their walls.

Johnson said his school district is focusing on partnerships not only with local mental health authorities and health agencies, but also with other school districts. He said his district shares staff and cut costs by joining in on a special education cooperative with four other districts and can be modeled in other parts of the state.

“We have 700 kids, a neighboring district might have 600 kids, and another district may have 150; we have to learn to work together to help lower some of the costs during these budget cuts.”

Collaboration is necessary, Johnson said, but even that is at risk under current funding restrictions.

Some schools are unable to expand partnerships with programs like , which directly works with students to provide mental health support and address chronic absenteeism.

“CIS is currently serving two campuses in our district, but we would definitely expand to have CIS serve all of our campuses if we had a state funded allotment that would help the district provide the matching funding that is needed to partner with CIS,” Chris Smith, superintendent of the Brownfield school district, said. “We just don’t have the funding available.”

Rural and smaller schools also face laying off social workers and psychologists hired during the pandemic and eliminating programs to ensure they can retain teachers through raises instead.

“We are adopting a budget this year that’s probably going to have a $2 million deficit. We are dedicated to making sure mental health services are available and luckily have been able to sustain through partnerships, but it has been tough times with the economy, and schools are struggling to keep up with costs,” Smith said.

The endless loop of putting mental health on the back burner until tragedy hits is unsustainable, according to education advocates, who say it’s time for funding dedicated to school mental health.

“I would like to have funding similar to what they said with police officers. You have to have a police officer on every campus, but that costs money yearly, and they provide. We should be doing the same with social workers and psychologists,” Johnson said.

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Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is again joining a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education as it continues trying to end federal grants for school-based mental health services.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because Tong joined a one year ago. That’s when the Department of Education initially discontinued the grants, arguing they reflected DEI priorities that fell afoul of the Trump administration’s new interpretation of civil rights law.

Tong and the other plaintiffs in December to get the money back, but the department only awarded six months’ worth of funding and added new “hoops” for grantees to jump through, according to from the attorney general’s office.

“Trump is taking money meant for our kids to bankroll ballrooms and tax breaks for billionaires. We’re going to keep fighting for as long as it takes to stop this cruelty and chaos,” Tong said in a statement.

The money came from the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress passed after the shooting that year at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. A five-year, $3 million grant went to the University of Connecticut to support 25 social work graduate students providing mental health services in schools in Hartford, New Britain, Waterbury and Vernon.

According to the attorney general’s office, the grant money — which totaled $1 billion nationwide — has allowed for the hiring of 1,300 mental health professionals and supported 775,000 K-12 students across the country. Participating high-need schools have seen suicide rates drop by half and a reduction in other problematic behaviors. Students have also reported shorter wait-times for services.

Despite the ongoing injunction, the Department of Education is still trying to end those grants permanently — but under a different section of administrative law.

The first time around, the department tried to use 34 C.F.R. § 75.253 to say it had the power to “discontinue” the grants. A federal appeals court ruled the government hadn’t followed the correct procedure, forcing it to release some of the frozen funds. Now, the department is saying it can still “terminate” the grants under 2 C.F.R. § 200.340, despite the previous decision.

“The Department does not believe that a decision to terminate a grant agreement, as distinguished from a decision not to continue a multi-year grant agreement into a subsequent calendar year, is affected by the Court’s December 19, 2025 injunction,” the department wrote in a motion it filed in the case June 10.

A hearing on whether “termination” and “discontinuation” are meaningfully distinct is set for July 24. According to the motion, if the court agrees the injunction does not cover the termination statute, the department could begin ending grants as early as July 31.

That’s why the plaintiffs, including Tong, have sued again, this time arguing the government cannot use § 200.340 to terminate grants, either. By filing a new lawsuit “protectively,” the plaintiffs hope to “secure a new injunction” regardless of what happens with the government’s June 10 motion. The new injunction would presumably prevent the Department of Education from following through on its plans to start terminating grants on July 31.

The Department of Education did not return a request for comment in time for publication.

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Maine joined 15 states on Friday in suing the Trump administration to prevent millions of dollars in cuts to school-based mental health funding.

The is part of an ongoing legal battle between Democratic-led states and the U.S. Department of Education over a mental health grant program that Congress established following the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

At stake is a $1 billion program that offers grants to school districts across the country to help them hire and train more mental health professionals to work in schools.

Democratic attorneys general in 15 states say the Trump administration, in defiance of a , plans to unlawfully terminate the grants at the end of this month, resulting in millions in lost funding.

“Our children deal with a unique set of problems which arise from growing up in 2026 — from loneliness to substance use disorder to the ever-present fear of violence — and the programs funded through these grants are designed to help them cope and hopefully thrive,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, a Democrat, in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

In 2022, after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers, Congress allocated $1 billion to the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program to increase the number of school-based mental health professionals.

That funding effort was bipartisan; at the time Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina . And within a year, the grants had funded mental and behavioral health services to nearly 775,000 students nationwide.

But in April 2025, under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Education told grantees the funding would be halted because their programs . At that time, the grants were supporting efforts in 49 states to prepare thousands of mental health professionals to work in K-12 schools.

Trump administration officials told the media that the grants were cut over what the administration saw as connections to .

A coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general last July, and a court ruled in their favor, ordering the Trump administration to stop the grant discontinuation. In the months since the order, the education department has threatened to withhold funding or terminate the grants altogether.

The Democratic attorneys general said they filed the new lawsuit to cover gaps in the previous court order that could allow the Trump administration to follow through on its desire to halt the funding.

“The courts have repeatedly ruled that the Trump Administration does not have the power to arbitrarily revoke grant funding that provides critical mental health services to our students,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, a Democrat, in a about joining the lawsuit.

“Still, the federal government continues its attempts to terminate funding.”

Stateline reached out to the U.S. Department of Education for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

Attorneys general participating in the lawsuit are from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.

This story was originally produced by , which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Maine Morning Star, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maine Morning Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lauren McCauley for questions: info@mainemorningstar.com.

Before Michaella Huck graduated from high school in 2018, she struggled with depression and anxiety and didn’t know where to get help. She’d hear stories of students who died on “suicide hill” in her Los Angeles neighborhood of San Pedro. 

It took a trusted adult for her to realize how educators could help save a student at risk of suicide. That’s why she is among the advocates behind a new bill that would expand the role California schools play in youth suicide prevention, she said. 

“Not being able to always feel comfortable with the stigma in our communities, or talk to my parents about stuff, I (had) my high school teacher. She spent more time with me, and I confided in her,” said Huck, a youth advisory board member at the California Youth Empowerment Network, a co-sponsor of Assembly Bill 2003.

Introduced by Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, AB 2003 would task the state’s Commission for Behavioral Health to develop free suicide prevention training for students, staff and parents, enlisting school communities to the frontlines of the youth suicide epidemic. 

The proposal, which has passed the state Assembly, would also require schools that conduct suicide risk screenings to submit annual reports to inform state policy.

Suicide Prevention hotline

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, the following services can help. 

• Trans Lifeline Hotline, 877-565-8860

• 988 California Consortium of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, dial 988 to call, text or chat

• , by phone, text or chat

Kendra Zoller, deputy director of legislative and external affairs at the California Commission for Behavioral Health, which is co-sponsoring the bill, said the training would be developed with experts at the California Department of Education and California Department of Public Health. Each group that opts into the training — students, staff and parents — will have tailored modules teaching them how to recognize warning signs, respond to them and access help.

“Schools are where warning signs are most often noticed early, since students spend so much of their daily lives there,” Zoller said. AB 2003 would also bypass a state law that requires a county department of education to receive a grant to fund suicide prevention training. Instead, educators, K-12 students and parents would receive training free and online.

For the first time since the pandemic, youth suicides last year, but still remain much higher than two decades ago. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for young people ages 10 to 25 in California, and between 2011 and 2021, the rate of youth dying by suicide increased by 60% nationwide. 

Berman said suicide prevention became a priority for him following a series of youth suicide clusters in his hometown of Palo Alto. Between 2009 and 2010, five students died by suicide at a railroad track next to Palo Alto High School, followed by four more between 2014 and 2015, and most recently, a 17-year-old girl who died by suicide in February. 

“It’s devastating to the whole school community that gets impacted,” Berman said. “We need to do everything we possibly can to support these young people.” 

In 2018, Berman secured $1.7 million in state funding for a pilot program that trained roughly 20,000 students and staff to recognize warning signs for suicide ideation and connect students to support services. The vast majority of participating staff and students reported feeling confident they could help someone at risk of suicide. About a quarter of all students and staff said they already had someone in mind who could use help.

Many schools in California have also rolled out suicide risk screeners as a tool to identify students who might be at risk of self-harm. Screeners can vary across schools, but common questions include:

• Have you wished you were dead or wished you could go to sleep and not wake up?
• Have you started to work out or worked out the details of how to kill yourself?
• Have you ever done anything, started to do anything, or prepared to do anything to end your life?

Most states use student surveys to measure aspects of suicide risk, but few collect information from screeners conducted in person and at school. Utah, for example, has local educational agencies collect suicide risk screening data, and Illinois became the first state to require universal mental health screenings in schools. If AB 2003 becomes law, California would be the first state with a repository of student population data and tools used to screen students for risk of suicide. 

The bill would only require reports from schools that choose to conduct screeners, Zoller said, and de-identify the data to protect student privacy. 

“This information may help the state understand screening capacity and implementation across schools, and could provide a foundation for future discussions about suicide prevention efforts,” she added.

For example, two schools in San Diego County that the number of boys and Latino youth referred to suicide risk screenings increased in the first four years of collecting screener data. Schools also noticed a surge in students referred to screenings for eating disorders, and in response, expanded their network of local eating disorder therapists to personalize student support. 

The data could also shape new suicide prevention training to address disparities in youth suicide. In California, Indigenous and Black youth represent the highest rate of youth deaths by suicide and accounted for some of the highest increases in suicide between 2023 and 2024.

In high school, Huck said she remembered “feeling isolated, feeling alone and feeling like I couldn’t talk to anybody” as a Black girl at her school. She also felt unsafe to open up to predominantly white staff, and many were likely to call school police in response to mental health crises, she said. 

Zoller said the bill would be “culturally and linguistically competent” and aim to reduce disparities in suicide awareness, early identification and intervention. In Berman’s district, for example, schools could better serve the needs of LGBTQ youth, who are at high risk of suicide and represent the majority of Palo Alto’s most recent youth suicides, Berman said.

The bill is expected to pass with broad support and is headed into the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Monday. Though the bill has not faced any opposition, the state will have to convince staff, students and parents that the optional training is worth taking on another task.

Berman said he is confident that with the state’s awareness campaign that will follow — combined with a shared urgency to save young lives — communities will step up.

“They’ll have the confidence to help out,’’ he said, “but it also hopefully spurs conversations between parents and their kids about the reality of how hard it is for young people who grow up these days.”

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It was also the kind of video that makes many teachers think, “That’s amazing — and there is absolutely no way I can do that.”

Most educators are not looking for one more performance to add to their day. They are already managing lesson plans, behavior, parent communication, paperwork, staff meetings, substitute shortages and the emotional weight of trying to meet every student’s needs. So when “greet students at the door” gets presented as another big, elaborate thing, it can feel unrealistic.

But the real power of a doorway greeting is not in the choreography.

It is in the connection.

I have seen this moment matter from preschool classrooms to high school hallways. After years of working with students and schools as a social worker, district administrator and consultant, I’ve learned that the ages and settings may change, but the need is remarkably consistent: Students want to know that someone is glad they are there.

Research suggests that this small routine can make a measurable difference. classrooms where teachers greeted students at the door saw a 20 percentage point increase in academic engagement and a 9 percentage point decrease in disruptive behavior. The researchers estimated that this kind of increase in engagement could add roughly an extra hour of engagement across a five-hour instructional day.

That is a significant return on a very small investment.

The beginning of class is one of the most important transitions of the school day. Students are moving from the hallway, cafeteria, playground or another classroom into a learning environment. They may be carrying noise, conflict, anxiety, excitement, frustration or unfinished conversations with them. The first few minutes of class can quickly become a scramble: students talking over each other, wandering, negotiating, arguing, sharpening pencils, asking what they missed or waiting to see how much the teacher will tolerate before stepping in.

A doorway greeting sets the tone before students cross the threshold.

The good news is that the most effective greetings in the research were not complicated and did not require special dance moves. The essentials are: Teachers used the student’s name. They made eye contact. They offered a brief nonverbal greeting — a handshake, fist bump, high five, nod or wave. Then they added a short positive or “pre-corrective” statement, which is simply a friendly reminder of what to do next.

That might sound like:

“Good morning, Jayden. I’m glad you’re here. Take a look at the warm-up on the board.”

“Hi, Maria. Good to see you. Grab your notebook and start with question one.”

“Welcome back, Marcus. Today is a fresh start. I’m glad you’re here because we’re going to learn about those volcanoes you were asking about.”

There is nothing flashy about it. But it is powerful because it combines connection and structure.

That combination matters.

Too often, schools treat relationships and expectations as if they are competing priorities. Some educators worry that a focus on relationships means being permissive. Others worry that a focus on expectations means being rigid or punitive. But students need both. They need to know that adults care about them, and they need to know what is expected.

A doorway greeting brings those two needs together in a practical way.

From a behavioral perspective, it is a predictable routine that explicitly teaches and reinforces expected behavior. Students know how to enter, where to look, what to start and how the class begins. That predictability lowers stress for students and teachers.

From a restorative practices perspective, it is a relationship-building habit. It communicates belonging. It gives teachers a daily opportunity to notice students before there is a problem. It allows a teacher to quietly repair after a difficult day, offer encouragement to a student who struggled yesterday or simply communicate, “You matter here. I see you and I’m glad you’re here.”

And from a classroom management perspective, it is prevention.

Teachers know that once a class begins in chaos, it can take a long time to recover. A calm, consistent start protects instructional time. It also reduces the need for repeated corrections once students are inside the room.

This practice becomes even more powerful when it is adopted schoolwide. I have seen schools make a community agreement for everyone to stand at their doors during passing periods or arrival time. The effect was immediate. Hallways felt calmer. Students were more connected to adults. Minor misbehavior decreased because adults were present, visible and welcoming. The whole building felt different. 

And something unexpected happened, too: Teachers began connecting with one another. They smiled and waved across the hall, offered words of encouragement, shared a quick joke and reminded one another, in small but meaningful ways, that they were in this together.

Of course, implementation matters. Doorway greetings should be simple, sustainable and adaptable. Teachers can choose a greeting style that fits their personality and their students. Some may use a fist bump. Some may use a warm verbal greeting. Some may offer students a choice: wave, elbow bump, peace sign or no-contact greeting. The point is not the gesture itself. The point is consistent positive contact paired with a clear start-of-class direction.

School leaders also have a role to play. If they want teachers greeting students at the door, they can model it themselves. They can be present, visible and engaged with students and staff during passing periods. That kind of modeling communicates that connection is not one more classroom management trick. It is part of the culture.

The best strategies in schools are often not the most complicated ones. They are the ones that are easy to repeat, grounded in research and aligned with what students and teachers actually need.

Greeting students at the door will not solve every behavior challenge. It will not replace strong instruction, meaningful relationships, clear routines or effective support systems. But it is one small practice that brings all of those ideas together. And when a routine becomes a habit, it becomes easier to sustain.

Two minutes at the door can say: You are welcome here. We are ready to learn. I see you. Let’s begin again.

For many students, that may be exactly the connection moment they need.

Roughly in North Carolina face hunger. But what does that statistic mean for the well-being of North Carolina’s students?

Josh Wells, coordinator at Owen Middle School in , sees the tangible toll that hunger can take on students — including falling asleep first thing in the morning, not being able to focus or connect with others, and acting out in class.

“You have a physiological response to being hungry in your body,” he said. “As a young person, that’s going to be very distracting — they’re not going to be able to focus on what’s going on in the classroom.”

Wells shared his perspectives during a recent panel on the connections between food insecurity, mental health, and student well-being organized by the .

In addition to the physiological response to hunger, Wells said there is also a social stigma attached to it. If a student receives an due to school lunch debt, or takes home a bag of food donations for the weekend, it can isolate them from their peers.

One solution to these challenges, panelists said, is no-cost school meals for all students. When all students can eat , stigma is reduced and participation in school meals increases, ensuring all students can access the fuel they need to support their well-being.

Nine states have enacted permanent school meals for all policies, and — including North Carolina — have introduced legislation to do so. Gov. Josh Stein’s for fiscal year 2026-27 calls for universal breakfast at no cost to all students, and state Democratic legislators have that would provide universal breakfast and lunch.

At the same time, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — which provides food assistance to more than 1.4 million people in North Carolina and to school meals — .

Among other things, the , signed into law in 2025 by President Donald Trump, increased the share states have to pay toward SNAP’s administrative costs. County governments are to owe an additional $69 million in administrative costs.

If the state and counties are unable to absorb these additional administrative costs, SNAP could face reductions or end entirely, threatening food access for hundreds of thousands of households. Stein’s budget calls for $15 million in state funding to ensure North Carolina can continue to operate SNAP.

The impact of food insecurity on mental health

Food security is as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” , 14% of all U.S. households were food insecure, and just over 18% of households with children were food insecure.

In a national survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — which was in 2025 — those experiencing food insecurity “not being able to afford a well-balanced meal, worrying that food will run out, not eating when hungry, cutting meal sizes or skipping meals, or going a whole day without eating.”

Meena Statz, a licensed clinical mental health counselor also on the panel, discussed the . When children’s basic needs, such as food, are not met, Statz said they can have difficulty regulating their emotions or engaging appropriately in class, which can result in a misdiagnosis.

“You see people who … maybe are misdiagnosed with ADHD or autism or Oppositional Defiant Disorder or anxiety because they are so hungry they’re not able to focus,” she said.

Statz also drew connections between childhood food insecurity and well-being in adulthood, noting that people who grow up experiencing food insecurity experience higher rates of mental health challenges, such as depression and anxiety.

She also said experiencing food insecurity as a child can create a cycle of generational trauma — children inherit the beliefs and behaviors of their parents, which can shape how they eat, shop for food, and feed themselves and their families. Statz said this can manifest in adulthood as an eating disorder, anxiety disorders, and other emotional distress related to food, even for those who are a generation or two removed from experiencing food insecurity themselves.

“Food is scarce, so we have a fear of not having enough food — and we have a lot of trauma around that, and so we’re hoarding food or maybe not eating as much,” she said.

The impact of free school meals on family well-being

Even before meals were provided for free to all students at Owen Middle, where Wells works, he said cafeteria staff worked diligently to ensure students receiving free or reduced-priced meals were not stigmatized from their peers.

But the cost of paying for meals still created a burden for some families, Wells said. Over time, students would rack up school lunch debt.

“That is an additional cost that our families really struggle with sometimes, whether it’s paying for the food at school or having to pack lunch,” he said.

That all changed when Owen Middle began offering free school meals to all students through the federal Community Eligibility Provision. Wells said he has seen the impact of free meals, not just on students, but on their caregivers who experience relief now that they no longer have to worry about the cost of paying for school meals.

“Without having to stress about that … that allows for those adults to use some of those funds in ways they don’t have to worry about: ‘Do I pay the light bill or buy food?’” Wells said.

Beyond school meals, Owen Middle also hosts community nights on Thursday evenings, inviting any family with K-12 students to enjoy a free catered meal with games, music, and access to tutoring. Wells said these events have helped build trust between the school and its families and have made families feel more comfortable asking for help with other needs they are experiencing.

The community nights also foster social connections between parents and students who may not otherwise know each other and allow families to connect with teachers in a relaxed, positive environment.

“By simply having some food, breaking bread together, and sitting next to each other — not asking our parents to do anything, just to come and be — we’ve absolutely seen that connection and that safety and that trust network build and build,” Wells said. “Our school building is not just a place where our parents and adults send their kids, it’s a place that they can also come.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

If the hope was that ridding classrooms of mobile phones would bring about a much better world for learning, that has not quite materialized — at least, not yet. Stanford and Duke university scholars joined those from the universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania to conduct the of school cellphone bans using data compiled from secure pouch-maker Yondr.

The study encompassed 4,600 schools and, as my colleague Greg Toppo reported this week, found that attendance, attention and bullying were largely unaffected by locking phones away, while academic achievement gains were minimal. But other school climate factors rose and fell in noteworthy ways — discipline worsened, then improved, and student well-being dipped before bouncing back. 

Restrictions or prohibitions on cellphones have been embraced by at least 37 states and the District of Columbia. Not surprisingly, teachers and parents are typically in favor, while students are largely against. 

Stanford economist Thomas Dee admitted that the results could be seen as sobering and somewhat disappointing, but said more time was needed to really gauge impact. Researchers studied three groups of schools, which banned phones starting in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

“I firmly believe that getting student phone use down, recapturing their attention in classrooms within schools, is a critical antecedent to realizing their academic potential,” he said.

While not part of this study, one related data point being trumpeted by cellphone ban supporters: After taking away students’ phones, Dallas Independent School District in school library book checkouts, from 872,430 in the first seven months of last school year to 1 million over the same period this year.

In the news

Ban on AI companions for kids advances on Capitol Hill: A Senate bill that would bar artificial intelligence companions from interacting with children and teens received unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 30 and now awaits Senate floor action. The measure would also require age verification for all users to interact with AI chatbots and subject chatbot makers to potential criminal penalties of up to $100,000 per offense if their tools describe or engage in sexually explicit content or encourage or promote physical or sexual violence with someone younger than 18. | 

• Dig Deeper: 
   

The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, is facing charges it created hostile work environments and discriminated against Jewish members. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over reported harassment of Jewish members at the union’s Representative Assembly meeting last July. The complaint alleges they were surrounded and screamed at during a debate on cutting ties with the Anti-Defamation League, and face other types of discrimination. The union denies tolerating antisemitism. | 

About that ChatGPT study. It’s been retracted. Citing “discrepancies” in the analysis and a lack of confidence in the conclusions, British-German publisher Springer Nature has retracted a study that claimed OpenAI’s ChatGPT can positively impact student learning. The unusual move came nearly a year after its publication and after the study had accumulated hundreds of citations and lots of social media hits. |   

The Vermont Principals’ Association paid $566,000 to a Christian school that was barred from participating in state sports after it refused in 2023 to compete against a girls’ basketball team that included a transgender player. The money settled a lawsuit brought by the Mid Vermont Christian School and two of its families. They were represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, one of several “out-of-state conservative legal groups (that) have had a growing presence in Vermont’s courts” litigating education and other cases. | 

A state audit found a host of weaknesses in how New York City public schools protects the data privacy of its 900,000 students. It pointed to major gaps in state-required data security policies and vulnerabilities in how student information is tracked, secured and managed. The nation’s largest school district has experienced several data breaches in recent years, including through third-party vendors like Illuminate and PowerSchool. |

• Read more: 

While TikTok and Instagram are scrutinized, YouTube rules in school. One Kansas mom logged on to her seventh grader’s school Google account last year to find that he had accessed more than 13,000 YouTube videos during school hours in two months. Schools’ overreliance on the Google-owned platform for educational content has opened the door to infinite video scrolling by students on their school-issued devices. |  

Connecticut lawmakers approved the state’s first homeschool regulations over the objections of Republicans and organized homeschooling families, who see the legislation as an attack on their parental rights. The rules will require all families to submit a yearly form stating how their children will be educated and will prohibit anyone from removing a child from school in order to homeschool if they are on the state child abuse or neglect registry or are being investigated by child protective services. Two homeschool students have died in the state in the past six months. | 

The algorithmic school-to-prison pipeline: With little transparency or oversight, technology is being used to flag youth as risks to public safety and deciding who is surveilled, arrested and confined. But young people haven’t been passive in the face of these systems. They’ve been among the most effective organizers against them. And they’ve been winning. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

Mika looks back and gives a smile to her human, 91ɬ��’s editor-in-chief Nicole Ridgway, on a sunny spring day in Prospect Park. 

After taking a break from social media, Orange County student Elise Choi helped write a bill that would mandate California schools teach digital wellness — a response to growing concerns about how technology is affecting students’ mental health.

Assembly Bill 2071 would require California schools to include digital wellness in health classes, teaching students how social media and AI affect their mental health and behavior. Supporters say the bill focuses not on limiting access, but on teaching students how to use technology responsibly. 

Elise, a junior at the Orange County School of the Arts and a member of the student coalition, GenUp, said a bill that serves students — not simply alleviates parent anxieties — has been long overdue. 

“It’s powerful to have students at the center of policy change when it comes to education legislation,” Elise said. “It’s important because we are the ultimate stakeholders, and these issues affect us and our future.”

The bill follows landmark court verdicts that found social media companies Meta and Google liable for designing “addictive” features and endangering children online. Elise said it also responds to what experts describe as a growing , fueled in part by  about social media use. 

If the bill is passed, the California Department of Education must develop by January 2028 a plan to teach students about topics such as healthy screen habits, algorithms and AI and safe interactions on social media. The proposal passed a committee hearing last week and is expected to pass in the Legislature with bipartisan support. 

State Assemblymember Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, who introduced the bill in the Legislature, said the idea of digital wellness instruction was born out of student pushback against the Phone Free Schools Act, which would require all public school districts to create policies to ban or prohibit mobile phone use starting in July. 

“Now, students are realizing how much the screen time and the social media use really does impact their well-being,” Hoover said. “And they’re actually getting excited about making changes and helping their peers actually improve their health as well.”

Where cellphone bans fall short

For many digital wellness advocates like Kelly Mendoza, a senior education leader at Media Education Lab who served as an expert consultant on the bill, digital wellness education picks up where California schools’ cellphone bans fall short. 

“Phone-free schools can reduce screen time or potentially reduce behavioral issues that can happen at school, but that doesn’t teach students healthy media use, decision-making and self-regulation,” Mendoza said. “Students are still not offered the opportunity to learn these skills in school in a structured and valuable way.”

Mendoza said she regularly sees students who are cyberbullied, experience depression and suicidal thoughts, are unhealthily attached to social media or struggle with loneliness in her work at a phone-free high school. A digital wellness course, she said, would teach students that they have control over their relationship to their phones.

Students would learn practical skills such as adjusting account settings, disabling notifications and managing algorithms to limit harmful or addictive content. They would also work through scenarios such as cyberbullying, body image pressure and misinformation to develop healthier behaviors online.   

Elise said she would like the curriculum to include families, particularly those from low-income and under-resourced communities. She recently attended a digital wellness workshop at a private school in San Diego, where parents and students learned to create a screen time agreement.

“Digital wellness instruction is very inconsistent, and it depends a lot on the resources of the school,” Elise said. “I also envision digital wellness to be an equitable subject that hopefully all students can have access to.”

Social media can be ‘good’ but ‘inescapable’ 

Elise said social media also served as an essential “tool” for building connections after she switched to a different high school. She met students online who had launched social impact clubs and helped her sister recruit volunteers to teach dance classes for people with disabilities. 

“We’re not anti-tech,” Elise said. “We’re for education, and we have to be balanced with technology, because it can be good and also inescapable.”

Elise said she met with representatives from Google last week, who she said generally supported “the course of safety (for) children and youth online” and expressed support for the bill. 

Hoover, however, emphasized that the bill is not meant to shield social media companies from regulation.  

“We cannot count on these companies to police themselves when it comes to child safety, so it’s important that we’re educating students, but also putting the right rules and regulations in place,” he said.

Hoover has introduced additional bills to regulate children’s use of social media, including one that would prohibit children under 16 from creating social media accounts — similar to Australia’s blanket ban — and another that would establish an e-safety commission to enforce age compliance. 

“Tech companies have a responsibility to be regulated to make sure that they’re not entrapping kids into a very addictive technology,” Hoover said.

Mendoza, a parent of a teenager, said her daughter uses social media to share and receive feedback on her art, where she has connected with a community of artists. She said the course could also teach students how to reap the “rewards and opportunities” of social media. 

The course would examine “What are the healthy communities that you connect to that are really fostering your growth and your development as a person? And how can you change your algorithm to connect more with those things?” Mendoza said. 

Before she got her first phone, Elise said she spent her time solving Rubik’s cubes, baking and reading. She said she is now spending time on those hobbies when she gets home from school. 

“The cellphone ban only gets us halfway — it doesn’t change our relationship with our devices,” Elise said. “We need to teach kids and give us skills for what happens when we get our phones back at the end of the day.”

In February, the telehealth company , including clinicians who worked directly with students and families, leaving about 500 employees. 

The company lost one of its biggest customers, the Los Angeles County Office of Education, last year. It shortened its contract with the Chicago Public Schools because of “challenges securing funding,” a spokeswoman said. And several districts across the country have also either ended their business with Hazel or have contracts that expire later this year. 

they are “restructuring” the company to put it in a better position as it pursues more stable sources of funding, like billing Medicaid and private insurance, now that the federal relief funds some districts used have expired. Company spokeswoman Emilie Fetterley said no additional layoffs are expected “at this time” and that many states and districts plan to renew their contracts. 

But according to internal memos, by a news outlet covering mental health, CEO Iyah Romm said the company was losing “too much money” to meet its goals. Since the expiration of the Los Angeles contract, the company has even, at times, absorbed the cost of services, Fetterley said. 

Some say the company faces a difficult road ahead.

There is a “massive need” to address student mental health and behavior issues, said Adam Newman, co-founder of Tyton Partners, a consulting firm focused on the education sector. Until the relief funds ran out, “there were enough dollars in the system for schools and districts to find ways to underwrite these types of programs. But the risk has always been: What’s the durable funding model?”

In Missouri, the Ferguson-Florissant district, outside St. Louis, ended its business with Hazel last year.

“They were great to work with,” said spokeswoman Onye Hollomon. Hazel served about 2,000 students in the district, which used COVID relief funds to pay for the program. “Once that phased out, we had to make that cut.”

Los Angeles spent more than $28 million in one year to make Hazel available to the county’s 80 districts, according to GovSpend, a data company tracking payments to government agencies. It funded its deal with the company by tapping a $389 million . Between March 2022 and May 2024, 804 schools in the county referred 9,337 students for services, according to data Hazel provided to the county. Of those, 4,162 students received at least one visit, with students participating in an average of six visits. Fetterley said once a student is referred to Hazel, parents don’t always follow through with a visit or may seek help elsewhere.

In addition to taking a loss on services for some students since last year, Hazel has relied on billing insurance, including Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, and contracts with individual districts. Leaders are currently negotiating contracts with districts for next school year. 

Hazel is also one of eight providers approved for a new program that allows 700 districts throughout California to be reimbursed for services by Medi-Cal or private insurers. It participates in a similar in Iowa, and in Nevada, the Clark County School District uses Medicaid funds to pay for Hazel services, but that ends in June. A spokesperson said the board has not yet decided whether to renew it.

‘Made their mark’

Telehealth programs, delivered through schools, were expanding long before the pandemic. They offer families convenient access to a remote doctor or therapist while preventing students from missing school for appointments that often turn into full-day absences. Hazel Health, founded in 2015 by health care executive Josh Golomb, was part of that growth. 

“Telehealth providers have made their mark in school-based health care,” said Nirmita Panchal, a senior policy manager at KFF, a nonprofit focusing on health policy. “They eliminate transportation barriers, where students may not be able to physically get to a provider.”

During the pandemic, when learning and work suddenly went virtual, telehealth programs for schools . of school-based health centers showed that during the 2020-21 school year, more than 80% of respondents offered telehealth services, up from 19% in 2016-17. 

The financial landscape has since changed. A lot of districts are now cutting budgets to close deficits. GovSpend, which doesn’t capture all district spending, shows a decline in payments to , a similar company, since 2023, while , another virtual mental health provider, saw a more stable influx of funds from 2024 to 2025. 

Among providers, however, Hazel Health stands out. The company, which serves 6,000 schools in 21 states, initially focused on primary health care, with physicians prescribing over-the-counter medications for routine symptoms like stomach pain or headaches. In 2021, the company broadened its model to provide mental health services and respond to “rising unmet student needs and limited access to care,” Fetterley said. 

In Florida’s Duval County schools, Brittany Beimourtusting reached out to Hazel last school year when she was going through a divorce. Her middle child, she said, was having trouble adjusting.

“It was a single-parent household all of a sudden, and I thought, ‘How am I supposed to get him to get help because I think he could use therapy,’ ” she said. The provider, she said, met with him about five times and helped him open up about what he was feeling. “It was definitely worth it.”

But when Superintendent Christopher Bernier looked for ways to save the district some money last year, a $1.4 million payment to Hazel was on the list.

‘A connected system’ 

Four years ago, the startup’s future looked bright.

It attracted over $50 million from investors, including Fiore Ventures, founded by Walton family heiress Carrie Walton Penner. As recently as last year, Hazel was still eyeing growth. It made two acquisitions, including , which offers family therapy, to further expand mental health services. 

“Together, we are building a connected system that supports children from their classrooms to their kitchen tables,” wrote Andrew Post, then �Ჹ�����’s president, in October. But he has since resigned, writing this month that it was time to turn to the “next chapter” in his career.

�Ჹ�����’s was supposed to run through the end of 2027. Now it will end on June 30. Still, district officials said the layoffs have had no impact on the services students receive. In a pilot program that began in March 2025, the district made mental health services available to 84 high schools. As of January, 420 students had taken advantage of the program, the district said.

In December, Destiny Singleton, the honorary student member of the Chicago Board of Education, told members that students don’t always feel comfortable talking to school counselors about personal issues because those staff members are often focused on academic performance and preparing for college. That’s why talking to an outsider can be helpful. But she added that students at the district’s larger high schools are often unaware that Hazel is even an option.

Some Chicago parents, however, are wary of Hazel and say families don’t always know what they’ve agreed to when they consent to allowing their child to meet with a Hazel provider. In to Chicago district leaders last year, student privacy advocates said they were concerned about whether Hazel properly secures students’ private information. 

The company’s acquisition of Little Otter, , raises red flags because Rebecca Egger, its CEO, formerly worked for Palantir, a federal contractor known for using AI to assist the Department of Homeland Security in its . 

In a response to Chicago officials, Romm, the CEO, wrote that Hazel does not “sell, share, or use student data for any commercial purpose,” and that it “does not have any relationship with Palantir, commercial or strategic.”

Fetterley, the company spokeswoman, also said Hazel is in the early stages of rolling out chatbots to “simplify administrative tasks like scheduling for parents and clinicians,” but that AI will never be a “substitute for our human providers.”

Even so, some districts see a much higher demand for in-person rather than virtual clinicians. In Broward County, Florida, where Hazel provides medical services, but not mental health support, 179 students completed a telehealth visit between August and December last year, according to district data. Over that same time period, more than 134,000 students visited a school clinic.

“Parents want nurses,” Cynthia Dominique, chair of the District Advisory Council and a parent in the district, told the school board in March. As a nurse practitioner, she questioned how a provider working remotely can diagnose and treat most common symptoms, like congestion or a sore throat.

“I can’t ask the registrar from the front desk, ‘Can you look in the kid’s mouth and tell me what you see?’ ” she told 91ɬ��. “They don’t know what they’re looking for.”

For district leaders, however, �Ჹ�����’s ability to keep kids from missing school provided an effective selling point.

During a 2023 meeting, Duval County School Board Member Darryl Willie said the program had saved the district 4,000 “classroom hours” during the 2021-22 school year.

“We’re talking about making sure we’re focused on reading, writing and math,” he said. “The only way we can do that is if students are in school, in classrooms, sitting in seats.”

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to 91ɬ��.

After nine days of deliberation, a Los Angeles jury found Google and Meta liable for harms stemming from the design of their social media products on Wednesday and ordered them to pay $3 million in compensatory damages to a plaintiff who said that Instagram and YouTube caused depression, body dysmorphia and suicidal thoughts.

Meta was 70 percent of damages and YouTube the rest. The amount owed the plaintiff may rise, and the jury will over potential punitive damages for egregious conduct, per The New York Times.

This is the tackling the legal question of whether features of social media, like autoplay, infinite scroll and beauty filters can cause harm to users.

“This momentous verdict shows that tech companies will be held accountable for the harm they cause. These companies have spent years choosing profit over people’s well-being, and now a jury has decided they must pay the price for their actions,” said Maddy Batt, a legal fellow at Tech Justice Project, a law firm specializing in suits against AI chatbots.

The plaintiff, KGM, filed her lawsuit using a pseudonym in 2023. KGM, now 20, says she has been addicted to social media since she was a child. It was one of three cases selected out of thousands as “bellwether trials” to test out a new theory of liability.

Batt cautioned that the outcome of this trial doesn’t mean “an automatic legal win” for the thousands of pending cases, as determining causation varies greatly given the circumstances. “Each individual plaintiff still does have to show, if they go to trial, that any negative mental health outcomes they personally experienced were linked to social media,” she said.

It is a huge boon to tech accountability advocates to see this success though, Batt said, and could lead to tech companies changing their products because of the amount of money in play to settle cases or pay damages. This jury decision, coupled with a $375 million verdict against Meta announced yesterday, is the first step to achieving that goal.

The New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023, alleging the company misled constituents over how safe its platforms are for children. State prosecutors focused specifically on Instagram’s potential to facilitate the sexual exploitation of kids.

On Tuesday, a jury sided with New Mexico, saying the company also engaged in deceptive trade practices. Meta was ordered to pay $5,000 per violation — $375 million total. Torrez at a future bench trial, and hopes to compel changes to the platform. Meta said it plans to appeal.

Batt pointed out that this trial is the first time tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg have had to make a case and submit to questioning in front of a jury of their peers. (The CEO did not take the stand in the New Mexico case.) Large tech companies have faced a public backlash over the past decade, and much of it has revolved around their products’ impact on the mental health of young people.

Frances Haugen, a whistleblower, leaked internal research documents from the company previously known as Facebook showing girls reported their eating disorders worsening after using Instagram. Social media use can prompt girls to compare and criticize their own bodies, and many companies struggle to moderate on their platforms.

Over two-thirds of teenage girls reported using Instagram, more than boys. A quarter each of Black and Latinx teens said they use Instagram and YouTube “constantly” according to a by Pew Research Center.

Google argued that YouTube was not social media, while Meta of KGM’s anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia. Meta’s lawyers deconstructed KGM’s home environment, alleging her parents’ divorce and treatment by her mother were the root cause of her emotional pain. The companies also argued that it wasn’t the way their products were designed that caused problems, but rather the specific content seen.

KGM originally named the companies behind Snapchat and Tiktok in the lawsuit, but those parties settled for an undisclosed sum before the trial started. The trial focused on Instagram and Facebook, both Meta products, and YouTube, which is owned by Google.

The burden was on KGM’s lawyers to prove that Meta and Google were negligent in their design of social media products and show that those same products caused the plaintiff’s mental health issues. The jury agreed with those arguments.

KGM testified that features like notifications , and she was unable to stop whenever she tried to limit her usage. She said she started her first Instagram account at age 9 and joined YouTube at age 10, even though legally kids aren’t supposed to have online accounts before they’re 13. Almost all of her Instagram posts had image filters on them, and KGM said she didn’t feel bad about her body until she began using the platform.

The tech accountability watchdogs who rallied behind KGM are ecstatic over this win. “The era of Big Tech invincibility is over,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project, in a statement.

For parents who have lost their kids to what many describe as social media-related harms, this is a moment of vindication.

“For years, families have been told this was a parenting issue, but the jury saw the truth: these companies made deliberate decisions to prioritize growth and profit over kids’ safety,” said Shelby Knox, director of online safety campaigns at nonprofit ParentsTogether.

Social media companies have been battling allegations of harm, particularly to kids, for years. Most of the claims are easily dismissed under Section 230, the law that says a platform isn’t held liable for third-party content it hosts. But these bellwether cases are testing whether the design of products like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are inherently harmful. Plaintiffs have pointed to the impacts of features such as infinite scroll and face filters as harmful regardless of the content being shared.

The case concludes as Congress works to pass a package of internet bills that is but that critics say may lead to the removal of digital and — a particular concern given the Trump administration’s policy positions.

In her statement, Haworth at The Tech Oversight Project called on lawmakers to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, one of the most hotly debated pieces of tech legislation in recent years. It has failed to pass the House since its first was introduced in 2022, but now is being considered as part of the aforementioned package.

“It’s good that people are suing these companies and winning in court to reduce their power and force them to change their policies,” said Evan Greer, director of digital rights nonprofit Fight For The Future, to The 19th. But she’s concerned how the verdict in KGM’s case will be used to advocate for laws that she says could threaten free speech online.

Greer pointed to the way activists are using social platforms to monitor abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, advocate for human rights and discuss accustations of sexual abuse against people like Jeffery Epstein. “We need policies that address corporate abuse without kneecapping the ability of front-line activists to use social media to change the world,” she said.

Jess Miers, associate professor of law at the University of Akron School of Law, is concerned about the long-term consequences of the verdict. While these cases focus on the way platforms are designed, said in practice, there isn’t a strong delineation between content and feature design.

“Autoplay is only engaging because of what it plays,” she told The 19th. “Infinite scroll only retains users because of what it surfaces.” She pointed out many apps use these kinds of features, but those aren’t the ones being sued.

Thus, liability tied to design will inevitably trickle down to judgements about content. “The only practical way to reduce the risks alleged in these suits is to restrict or suppress categories of content that might later be characterized as harmful or ‘addictive,’” she noted.

And what’s the content most likely to be labeled as harmful? “History shows they expand to cover disfavored speech—whether that’s reproductive health information, gender-affirming care, or speech about policing and immigration enforcement,” she said.

“The people most likely to be affected are those who already rely on the Internet as a primary space for connection and support,” Miers said — like disabled people, LGBTQ+ youth or people looking for accurate information on contraception.

was originally reported by Jasmine Mithani of . .

The parents of called on Indiana lawmakers to limit minors’ access to social media after their daughter’s death was linked to a 39-year-old man she spoke to online.

The original version of SB 199 would have banned social media operators from allowing Hoosier children to make accounts on their platforms and limited access for older teenagers. But this language was stripped in the Senate.

Now, House lawmakers are considering adding a version of the restriction back with an amendment.

Speaking at the House Education Committee Wednesday in support of the amendment, Beau Buzbee said 17-year-old Hailey had been lured away from their home by an online predator last month. Law enforcement announced Feb. 1 that she is believed to be deceased and that an Ohio man was arrested in connection with her disappearance.

Buzbee said their experience showed glaring gaps in Indiana law that needed to be addressed.

“We are losing the fight to protect our children. The internet and social media are the devils’ and predators’ playgrounds, and it’s on this front that we must fight,” Buzbee told lawmakers. “Please do not let this opportunity slip away.”

Supporters of have also called for schools to provide mandatory updated predator education and for updates to the state’s missing person alert system. they would add an expansion to the alert system as an amendment to HB 1303, a bill that increases the penalties for child exploitation, and that they would discuss adding more education to the existing health standards.

Indiana— but ultimately — a social media ban for minors under 14 and restrictions for those under 17 this year.

The most recent iteration of the ban is the amendment to SB 199, which requires social media providers to estimate the age of an account user and seek permission from the parents of users under 16. For minor accounts, the amendment forbids social media providers from using an algorithmic feed or selling data for advertising purposes, restricts who can contact the user, and gives parents monitoring tools.

Critics have raised First Amendment concerns as well as the possibility that the state will be drawn into an extended legal challenge over the law.

But supporters of a restriction on social media, including Secretary of Education Katie Jenner, say the state must act to address the risks of social media to children and teens the way it does for other dangerous activities, like tobacco use. Social media use is linked to depression, irregular sleep, and a lack of physical activity and social emotional support, said State Health Commissioner Lindsay Weaver. And these issues spill over to classrooms and affect learning, school leaders said.

House lawmakers heard hours of testimony overwhelmingly in support of the language on Monday, but did not take action to add it to the bill.

Supporters of the amendment included South Bend student Rima Bahradine-Bell, who said social media use promises community and affirmation but actually leads to comparison and dependency.

“I’m coming to you as a teenager and a high schooler, and I’m telling you that I would have liked to not have any social media at that age,” she said. “My friends are telling me to tell you that we did not want this.”

Amy Klink, a school counselor at Guerin Catholic High School, said she frequently speaks to students experiencing mental health crises as a result of social media and to their parents, who struggle to restrict social media access.

“Even when parents are aware of a social media account, they can’t be aware of every account with a new name. Parental verification could help with this,” Klink said. “It’s not the magic pill, but it will help.”

SB 199 will return to the House Education Committee on Wednesday for lawmakers to amend and vote.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Dulcie and her family, who live in the Twin Cities metro, are afraid every day when they leave for work and school.

“All of my friends are staying at home. No one comes out. It gets to me,” said Dulcie, who declined to use her last name because she fears retribution from federal agents, who have been detaining citizens and legal immigrants.

Recently, Dulcie began driving her parents to work every morning before school, as early as 4 a.m. — because she is afraid they might disappear.

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“I would rather do that than never hear from them. I’d rather know at least where to look for them then never hear a single word from them probably,” she said.

Like many area schools, Dulcie’s school is offering an online option for students worried about coming to school, but she has continued to go to school in-person, even if she doesn’t always feel like it.

“Most of the time I don’t even want to go because everything just feels so depressing,” Dulcie says.

The nation’s conscience has been shocked by high-profile incidents of federal immigration enforcement agents engaging children, including apprehending on his way home from school.

But the impact on children and their families extend beyond these viral incidents, affecting the lives of children and families broadly across race, immigration status and economic class in the Twin Cities. The ongoing immigration surge of around has created a climate of fear — not just for the criminals and undocumented immigrants they claim to be targeting — but for ordinary families trying to maintain the routines and normalcy of childhood.

“We are just kids, and instead of being kids and living our lives as kids, we have to step up and support our community,” said Taleya Addison, an 18-year-old senior at FAIR School for Arts in downtown Minneapolis. She said her best friend’s father has been in ICE detention for weeks, and his mother is a stay-at-home mom. The family is struggling, so Addison has been picking up groceries and running errands for them.

With a Trump executive order in hand allowing stepped up immigration enforcement around schools and churches, federal agents have detained at least nine students in Columbia Heights, which canceled school Feb. 2 after feds were observed stalking bus stops and schools around arrival and dismissal.

Duluth Public Schools, Fridley Public Schools and Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union, against the feds, alleging the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedures Act by rescinding the sensitive areas policy that had previously protected schools from immigration enforcement activity.

Among the many incidents around schools:

On the day of Renee Good’s killing, immigration agents deployed chemical irritants and smoke outside of Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. After the murder of Alex Pretti, federal agents deployed smoke outside of an elementary school in Minneapolis.

On Jan. 14, federal agents were spotted gathering outside of an elementary school around dismissal time .

Roseville schools reported that on Jan. 21 immigration enforcement agents used a school parking lot as a staging area.

Parents interviewed by the Reformer said immigration agents have lurked outside of schools in Minneapolis, and one said agents in a vehicle concealed themselves in the parent pickup line at a suburban school, while staff scrambled to get students safely inside.

Federal agents have also been confronted after around in the Twin Cities.

On Jan. 14, Area Public Schools reported that a parent waiting at a bus stop had been taken by federal agents. And on Jan. 23, Public Schools reported that two students and their parents had been taken by federal agents in an incident witnessed by another parent in the district.

On Jan. 15, transporting students and staff from St. Paul Public Schools were stopped by federal agents.

On Jan. 27, Public Schools reported that two of its vans had also been stopped by federal immigration agents while students and staff were on board. And on Jan. 29, reported that federal agents had boarded a bus while students were on board.

The�����ڴǰ������ spoke with more than a dozen Twin Cities teens, parents of younger children and teachers to understand the impact on the daily lives of children. Their experiences range from the minor inconveniences of having extracurricular activities postponed or canceled, to fearing for their own safety leaving the house for school or work.

Students have gone missing from school

Heather, who declined to use her last name because she fears retribution against her students and school, teaches English learners at a middle school in the Twin Cities. Since her district introduced an online learning option, her typical class of 20 students is down to just four or five students in person. Many students are also not showing up online either.

Although absenteeism has been worse since the killing of Good on Jan. 7,  Heather has had students regularly missing school because of concerns about immigration enforcement since November. One student has temporarily moved in with family out of state because their parents believe they are safer there.

Heather said she is concerned that many of her students who have moved to online learning might never come back to the classroom.

Student absenteeism is also putting some funding at-risk for Minnesota school districts. When students miss more than , districts are required by state law to drop students from enrollment. Most K-12 school funding in Minnesota is tied to , averaged over the school year, so as students remain absent for extended periods, districts will start to lose funding.

Significant short-term and long-term consequences for children are already well documented

Researchers have previously shown the impact of intensive immigration enforcement, beginning with short-term effects like missed school and increased anxiety.

When immigration enforcement increased in last year, students missed 22% more days of school, with the youngest students missing the most days. Missing school is tied to lower academic outcomes.

But the long-term impacts extend beyond academic outcomes. In the year following an on a meatpacking plant in Morrison, Tenn., in 2018, researchers found consequences for children’s wellbeing up to a year after the raid.

They documented more suspensions and expulsions from school for student behavior, and a doubling of serious mental health disorders including substance use disorder, depression, self‐harm, and suicide attempts or ideation. Children were more likely to be victims of sexual abuse in Morrison in the year following the raid.

The Morrison raid was a single incident that resulted in detention of about 100 adults. By contrast, Minnesota has been subject to intense, ongoing enforcement actions that have now lasted for over two months and affected thousands of families.

Recent research in Florida suggests the impact extends beyond families caught in the enforcement dragnet. A recent study of , where immigration enforcement increased significantly at the start of the second Trump administration, found that student test scores dropped for American-born Spanish-speaking students just as much as for those born outside the U.S. They also found a decline in test scores for Hispanic students broadly, not just those who speak Spanish.

The same Florida study also showed that the impacts were more significant for students in middle and high school, among girls and students already struggling in school. And, for schools with higher concentrations of poverty, increased immigration enforcement had a larger impact on students, controlling for other student characteristics.

Once higher rates of absenteeism kick in, the negative effects can spread to an entire school community. Teachers struggle getting students back up to speed after they miss even one day of classroom instruction, data show. And, research during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that students and families can struggle to resume attending school regularly when their routine has been disrupted by time away from in-person learning.

A student alters her daily routines after a killing near her home

Children in the Twin Cities aren’t just facing the threat of federal detention. Hattie, a Black high school senior who declined to use her last name for fear of federal retribution, lives near where federal officers shot and killed Alex Pretti. The killing, along with the continuous presence of federal immigration enforcement activity around her home, has created a fearful atmosphere. She and her friends have quit taking their customary strolls around the neighborhood or taking the bus to get around.

Hattie said she doesn’t feel like she is a target for federal agents. As a Black woman, however, she knows they would see her, and assumes they’d read her as an opponent.

“I’m scared to go out there because you really never know when or where or who or why,” Hattie said.

She said she has noticed subtle changes in her school, like more Latino students choosing to attend online and extra security around.

“I can definitely see the difference in who takes the bus, who’s walking home,” Hattie said.

She’s struggled to manage the stress.

“At least for me, personally speaking, I’m not really coping. It’s just like, let’s just make it to the next day and not be targeted,” Hattie says.

Like many others around the Twin Cities, Hattie has also been spending her time helping to organize donations and support for people staying at home for their own safety. She said that while people definitely need food, households sheltering in place also need toys and activities for children stuck inside, assistance getting medical care, and even help taking laundry to the laundromat.

Effects of immigration enforcement felt in suburbs

Eve, who has one parent who is an immigrant to the United States, attends high school in a suburb of the Twin Cities. Although she and her family haven’t had direct interactions with federal agents, she has been impacted in smaller ways: A friend’s birthday was moved out of Minneapolis because the friend group comprised a diverse group with many immigrant parents.

Eve, who declined to use her last name because she fears retribution from the feds, said that despite the challenges, the crisis has yielded some positive outcomes, like seeing small gatherings outside of her school at dismissal expressing opposition to ICE, and demonstrators on overpasses and street corners regularly expressing similar sentiments.

Eve’s school has also had ongoing fundraisers to help support those more impacted by immigration enforcement. Seeing people come together and express opposition to what is happening has been a silver lining for her, she said.

Eve’s mother said that she has expressed concerns about her father, although he is a naturalized citizen. Although Eve said she thinks most of her classmates and teachers are opposed to what is happening, her mother said Eve has expressed concern about a few students expressing racism and hatred of immigrants at school.

Dulcie is the only person in her friend group of Latinas that is attending in-person school. She said almost all of the Latino students at her school have chosen the online option. The school’s Latino Club has moved its meetings online.

She said some of her teachers struggle to simultaneously manage classroom and online instruction. Some of her classes have a Spanish-speaking co-teacher or aide, which she said is helpful for keeping the online students on-track. But most of her classes lack this additional support.

Her friends are doing their best to log into online classes, and keep up with the teacher. In her classes without an aide, Dulcie said, she has started using her cellphone in class to text with her friends online to help them keep up. Her school, like many in the Twin Cities, has a strict no cellphone policy. But she said her teachers understand.

Counselors at Dulcie’s school, which is racially and economically integrated, have been collecting donations for students and their families impacted by the federal siege. Dulcie said that she hasn’t asked for any help though because she feels guilty when others need more. She is also concerned that students attending online are feeling more disconnected from school, and are not aware of the assistance available through the school.

Most of her friends are no longer leaving their homes. While online school allows them to stay safely inside, she said that many are growing restless and bored, spending too much time on their phones or screens, like during the early days of the pandemic.

But in some ways worse, because at least during the COVID pandemic, her friends were leaving the home, Dulcie said.

Dulcie said she worries that if the intensity of immigration enforcement activity continues, she and her friends could miss out on important milestones, like prom and graduation. It is already keeping her friends from celebrating their birthdays.

“I’ve gone through two historic moments already,” Dulcie said, referring to the COVID pandemic and murder of George Floyd. “It’s like, too much.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

For those of us who work in schools, this isn’t a surprise. It is simply the data catching up to what we see every day: Our children are struggling, and too many are not getting the support they need.

Across the country, young people are facing unprecedented levels of . This is true for children of every background. But as with nearly every social challenge in America, in low-income communities of color like the one my school serves on Chicago’s South Side. Families here are more likely to face housing instability, food insecurity, community violence and untreated trauma — and they are less likely to have easy access to high-quality mental health care.

When behavioral health needs go unmet, the consequences ripple far beyond the child. We see it when students can’t concentrate, regulate their emotions or trust adults. We see it in . We see it in teachers stretched to their limits and families overwhelmed by crises that could have been prevented with earlier support. Mental health is not separate from learning; it is a prerequisite for it. As I tell my team, children cannot learn if they are not safe, warm, dry, fed and well.

The recent report also makes something else clear: Families are being asked to carry more and more of the financial burden. Out-of-pocket spending on children’s behavioral health care is growing at more than twice the rate of other health care costs, increasing by an average of 6.4% each year. Families with a child receiving behavioral health care are far more likely to experience severe financial strain. In practice, this means that getting help for a child increasingly depends on whether a family can afford it.

That is how a two-tier mental health system takes root. Families with money can access private therapy and specialists. Families without it are left to wait, to ration care or to reach the system only when their child is in crisis. While the study does not break down spending by race or income, it’s clear that in a country where wealth and healthcare access are deeply unequal, rising behavioral health costs will hit Black and low-income families the hardest.

That is why schools like mine have become something they were never designed to be: frontline providers of mental health care.

At , a kindergarten through eighth grade public school on Chicago’s South Side, 28% of our students receive school-based mental health services. We partner with organizations like , offer virtual coaching through and employ multiple, full-time social workers because our students need these supports to succeed.

These services are not extras; they are as essential as textbooks and teachers. But providing them requires tradeoffs, and too often schools are forced to choose between academic programming and mental health care.

School-based services work because they eliminate the barriers that keep so many families from accessing help. There is no need to take time off work, find transportation or navigate an unfamiliar health system. Students receive support in a place they already know and trust. Problems are identified earlier, before they escalate into emergencies that lead to hospitalizations, school removals or long-term harm. In communities where mental health providers are scarce or unaffordable, schools have become the most reliable point of access.

But this role is not sustainable without public investment. Schools should not be propping up a broken healthcare system with education dollars.

If our leaders are serious about equity, they must fully fund school-based behavioral health services, especially in high-need communities. That means investing in counselors, social workers, psychologists and strong partnerships with community providers. It means creating stable, ongoing funding streams rather than short-term grants that disappear just as programs take root. And it means ensuring that Medicaid and other insurers reimburse schools directly for the care they provide, so schools are not forced to subsidize health care out of classroom budgets.

The data make clear that children’s behavioral health care has become a central part of what it takes for young people to thrive. As long as access to that care depends on a family’s income or ZIP code, the gap between those who get help and those who do not will continue to grow. Schools like Great Lakes Academy are doing everything we can to fill that gap. With the right public investment, schools can ensure that every child — no matter their race or family income — has the support they need to learn, heal, and succeed.

Ann’s three young boys had been through a lot already. Her marriage to their father was marked by violence, and a divorce was followed by multiple violations of a protective order, she said. While their father sat in prison in North Dakota, she moved the family to the Twin Cities.

But while the move gave them distance, it didn’t solve their problems, said Ann, who asked to be identified by her middle name to protect her children’s privacy. Her sons, especially the two youngest, suffered mental health issues including , and anxiety. Her middle son was diagnosed with , characterized by angry and sometimes violent outbursts.

“I had 13 police calls within a nine-month period to my house,” Ann said. When a police officer handed her a domestic violence information card, she knew things had to change.

Ann’s middle son had been enrolled in public school in a suburb of St. Paul, but after being removed from his mainstream classroom due to his behaviors, he wasn’t receiving the support he needed academically or emotionally.

A social worker told her about , located in Minneapolis Public Schools’ Wilder Complex and offering intensive supports to children in grades K-8 struggling with mental illness. Despite her nerves, Ann scheduled a visit. In one of her first interactions, an intake person said, “‘Because you’re here looking for help, you’re more advanced than most adults,’” Ann recalled. “I knew at that moment we were in the right place.”

A trauma-informed approach for kids

Jessica Dreischmeier, Catholic Charities Children’s Day Treatment Program director, said that her program is a good match for children like Ann’s sons. Staff not only understand the impact that early childhood trauma can have on mental health, but the program’s approach helps them make progress with kids deemed unfixable by other schools.

“I would say a majority of the youth that come here for treatment have experienced some type of trauma,” Dreischmeier said. “We know that those symptoms can manifest themselves in a number of ways, including depression, aggression, anxiety, ADHD — and we have deep experience working with those kinds of kids.”

With the right approach, she said, most kids can recover from mental illness.

“One day might be hard, but over time we get there with pretty much everybody — which is awesome.”

A long and loyal legacy

Catholic Charities Children’s Day Treatment was founded in 1968 as an extension of , founded in 1869 as a residential shelter for orphans. The day treatment program was created to provide an alternative option for children at St. Joseph’s who needed extra mental health support.

St. Joseph’s Home closed in 2020, but the day treatment program continued. Enrollment is capped at 40 students who work with 17 full-time staff members. Students come from around the metro area but enroll in through a partnership with the district. Mental health services are billed through health insurance.

Many staff members have worked at the center for decades. Karen Johnson, a mental health practitioner who has been employed by the program for 24 years, said she feels a deep connection to the children in her care.

“I should have retired five years ago,” Johnson said. “Each time I have that thought, another kid comes through the door, and  I’m like, ‘Now I have to stay until they finish the program.’ Then another kid comes.”

A focus on parent connection and long-term success for kids

According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, there are . Still, Dreischmeier said that Catholic Charities’ program remains in high demand.

“The need for mental health services for youth and children in Minnesota has been going up for a while,” she said, “but especially after Covid, it’s particularly evident.”

A typical day for students includes two three-hour blocks – one for academics and the other for mental health therapy and treatment.

Mental health support is delivered in individual and group settings with a focus on parent and guardian involvement, Dreischmeier said. Families are taught how to build strong connections with their child and to reinforce strategies they’re practicing at school.

The kids work on setting goals for their life beyond the program. While students’ individual goals look different, the overall aim is a return to home life and a less restrictive school setting. “We’re hoping our intervention helps kids stay in their home and with their family and not have an out-of-home placement,” Dreischmeier said.

‘We’re not going to leave anybody behind.’

For parents like Ann, the transition to day treatment often comes amid deep distrust of past educational settings. Families arrive feeling guarded, Dreischmeier said. They wonder: “‘Are you going to perceive my child as a problem?’ ‘Will you only see them for the behaviors they are having when they are having a hard time, or will you see my whole child?’”

The kids often wonder the same thing, Johnson said. “A lot of these kids come here with no hope. They think, ‘People say I’m bad so I’m never going to be nothing.’ I try to change that narrative.”

Dreischmeier said that her staff remains undaunted even by the students’ most challenging behaviors.

“If something is hard, we’re going to all come together and work on it and talk about it,” she said. We’re going to move forward all together. We’re not going to leave anybody behind.”

Academically, the aim is not just to keep students on track, but to move them ahead. In traditional school settings with larger class sizes and fewer supports, children with serious mental health issues are often separated from their peers and fall behind.

Dreischmeier said things are run differently at Children’s Day Treatment, where the ratio of adults to students is much higher – often three adults to every six or seven students. “Students are really able to focus in and learn,” she said.

On average, students participate in the program for a year to a year and a half, Dreischmeier said. Most then move back to their local community school. Some are recommended for further services, including residential and outpatient mental health programs.

Surprised by hope

After two years at Children’s Day Treatment, Ann’s middle son graduated  last year. Though he struggled in the beginning, she said, he eventually settled in and found success.

“His graduation was the most incredible thing,” Ann recalled. “Staff said he’d emerged as a leader. We did not know that about my son. To hear his peers get up and give their testimonies about him – there was not a dry eye in the room.”

Today, he’s enrolled at a school in her home district – something she never thought possible – where he continues to receive special education support. Ann’s youngest son enrolled at Children’s Day Treatment in the fall. She’s optimistic: “I’m just grateful for people like them who want to help children like mine.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

California school districts were bracing for their mental health grants to be cut at the end of the month, but a recent court ruling could force the Trump administration to temporarily release the remaining funds used for school social workers and counselors. 

A court ruling on Dec. 4 rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to stall a preliminary injunction in which a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Education to release millions of dollars in grants for school mental health workers. 

The ruling is part of an ongoing multi-state lawsuit alleging that the administration’s sweeping cancellation of mental health grants — $168 million for California schools — in April was unlawful and jeopardized services “critical to students’ well-being, safety and academic success” in rural and underserved parts of the country. 

The mental health program, which was funded by Congress after the 2022 , included grants meant to help schools hire more counselors, psychologists and social workers.

In an April discontinuation letter, the Trump administration accused grant recipients of violating “merit, fairness and excellence in education,” broadly targeting diversity, equity and inclusion in the grant program. 

Amanda Mangaser Savage, an attorney at the nonprofit law firm Public Counsel, said the injunction does not issue a final ruling on the legal basis of the cancellation. It issues a temporary release of funds, she said, that is not guaranteed to be permanent or timely enough to retain all mental health worker roles before Dec. 31, the cutoff for funds listed in the cancellation notice. 

“So it’s not like someone flips a switch and all of a sudden everybody gets money,” Savage said. “It’s that the Department of Education can’t rely on these unlawful considerations that it relied on to discontinue the grants.” 

Injunctive relief applies only to a subset of grantees who had submitted declarations of harm to the court, including McKinleyville Union School District and Northern Humboldt Union High School District in Humboldt County. Represented by Public Counsel, McKinleyville Union also filed its own independent lawsuit in October, seeking a release of nearly $6 million in remaining mental health grant funds, Savage said. 

The ruling restores roughly $3.8 million in Madera County in the Central Valley and $8 million in Marin County in the Bay Area.

Jack Bareilles, the grants and evaluation administrator with the Northern Humboldt Union High School District, said the court ruling is a step in the right direction, but that it is not enough to retain the four social workers and project staff, as well as prospective social work interns, he expects to lose, unless a final ruling guarantees restored funds for the district. Northern Humboldt is still expecting to lose more than $6.5 million in grant funds. 

“We’re happy that the panel ruled the way they did, but this administration has made a habit out of continuing to appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court,” Bareilles said. “It doesn’t give us any certainty at this moment.”

Unlike in McKinleyville Union’s independent lawsuit, Northern Humboldt and other school districts are not the main plaintiffs in the multi-state lawsuit, which was filed by a coalition of 16 states in June. Bareilles said that he is also uncertain whether the injunction would release funds to all 49 grant recipients, or only those who declared support for the lawsuit, in California. If or when the district does receive its funds, Northern Humboldt would not be able to fully recover its team of school counselors and social workers, he said. 

“It will be very hard to regain the momentum,” Bareilles said. “We can’t even rehire in some cases, because we’re in the middle of the school year, and people have already taken other jobs.”

Grant provided funds to hire more counselors

Before the grant, McKinleyville Union had only one school counselor per 850 students. Since then, it has been able to hire five more counselors. If the district does not receive funds in time, the school could lose these workers, as well as a mental health grants administrator. 

“And, most problematically, students start to develop relationships with the mental health providers that are in their schools. If all of a sudden those positions are cut, in some ways that’s even more harmful than if you would never start them at all,” Savage said. “Because students believe that they’re going to have this care and then all of a sudden, they don’t.”

Through the grant, Northern Humboldt has provided more than 3,600 additional students with mental health services since 2023 and has helped credential and employ over 25 mental health clinicians in the county. Bareilles is hopeful that the restored funds will allow for the continued training of prospective social workers and school counselors. 

“But for our students, there’s hundreds of kids this year who have not had a person to serve them because that person wasn’t there,” Bareilles said. “That’s just the sad nature of this process.”

In Humboldt County, where McKinleyville Union and Northern Humboldt Union are located, more than half of all youths have experienced traumatic events like abuse or homelessness, according to Savage. The county also has the highest number of Native American youth in California who rely on grant funds to receive services like grief intervention and suicide prevention, she said. 

“What’s really going on here is the Trump administration is having an ideological disagreement with the Biden administration, and it’s basically throwing these kids under the bus,” Savage said. “It just shows how little they actually care about the mental health of these students.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

It was in physical education class when Laila Gutierrez  Vaping.

Like students across the country, Gutierrez got dragged between vape manufacturers, who used celebrity marketing and fruity flavors to hook kids on e-cigarettes, and educators, who’ve turned to surveillance tools and discipline to crack down on the youngest users. Gutierrez was suspended for a week after she was nabbed vaping in a crowded school bathroom during her lunch hour. 

In my latest investigative deep dive, , I reveal how school districts across the country have spent millions to install vape-detecting sensors in school bathrooms — once considered a digital surveillance no-go. The devices prioritize punishment to combat student nicotine addiction.

My analysis of public records obtained from Minneapolis Public Schools reveals the sensors inundated administrators with alerts — about one per minute during a typical school day, on average. Their presence brought a spike in school discipline, records show, with and younger middle school students facing the harshest consequences. 

The sheer volume of alerts, more than  across four schools, raises questions about whether they’re an effective way to get kids to give up their vape pens. And some students voiced privacy concerns about the sensors, the most high tech of which can now reportedly detect keywords, how many young people are in the bathroom at one time and for how long. 

“Surveillance is only a diagnosis,” Texas student activist Cameron Samuels told me. “It only recognizes symptoms of a failed system.”  

In the news

Charlotte, North Carolina, school officials reported more than 30,000 students absent on Monday, two days after federal immigration agents arrested 130 people there in their latest sweep. That more recent data point underscores the 81,000 school days missed by more than 100,000 students in California’s Central Valley after immigration raids earlier this year, according to a newly peer reviewed Stanford University study. | 

• Los Angeles schools have lost thousands of immigrant students — from 157,619 in the 2018-19 school year to just 62,000 this year — because of the city’s rising prices and falling birth rates. Now, that trend has intensified after the “chilling effect” of recent federal immigration raids, district officials said. | 

• Student enrollment is dropping in school districts across the country amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In Miami, for example, the number of new immigrant students has decreased by more than 10,000 compared to last year. | 

Ten Commandments: Siding with the families of students who argued they infringed on their religious freedom, a federal judge on Tuesday ordered some Texas public school districts to remove Ten Commandment displays from their classroom walls by next month. | 

• 28 Bills, Ten Commandments and 1 Source: A Christian Right ‘Bill Mill’. | 

Online gaming platform Roblox announced it will block children from interacting with teens and adults in the wake of lawsuits alleging the platform has been used by predators to groom young people. | 

Furry and freaky: “Kumma,” a Chinese-made teddy bear with artificial intelligence capabilities and marketed toward children, is being pulled from shelves after researchers found it could teach its users how to light matches and about sexual kinks. | 

A teenage girl from New York reported to a police officer at school that her adoptive father had been raping her at home for years. The officer, who didn’t believe her, bungled the case — and she was abused again. | 

‘Brazen cruelty’: A federal judge has ordered the release of a 16-year-old Bronx high schooler who has spent nearly a month in federal immigration custody despite having a protective status reserved for immigrant youth who were abused, neglected or abandoned by a parent. | 

Civil rights groups have decried proposed federal changes to the Education Department’s data collection on racial disparities in special education that could make it more difficult to identify and address service gaps. | 

‘Dead-naming’ enforced: A Texas law now requires school employees to use names and pronouns that conform to students’ sex at birth. Several transgender students whose schools are complying say it has transformed school from a place of support to one that rejects who they are. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

“Let’s circle back in 2026.”

-Taittinger, already

The robots have 

New research suggests that a majority of  at school. To write essays. To solve complicated math problems. To find love. 

Wait, what? 

Nearly a fifth of students said they or a friend have used artificial intelligence chatbots to form romantic relationships, according to . Some 42% said they or someone they know used the chatbots for mental health support, as an escape from real life or as a friend.

Eighty-six percent of students say they’ve used artificial intelligence chatbots in the past academic year — half to help with schoolwork.

The tech-enabled convenience, researchers conclude, doesn’t come without significant risks for young people. Namely, as AI proliferates in schools — with help from the federal government and a zealous tech industry — on a promise to improve student outcomes, they warn that young people could grow socially and emotionally disconnected from the humans in their lives. 

• Dig Deeper: 

In the news

The latest in Trump’s immigration crackdown: The survey featured above, which quizzed students, teachers and parents, also offers startling findings on immigration enforcement in schools: 
While more than a quarter of educators said their school collects information about whether a student is undocumented, 17% said their district shares records — including grades and disciplinary information — with immigration enforcement. 

In the last school year, 13% of teachers said a staff member at their school reported a student or parent to immigration enforcement of their own accord. | 

• Call for answers: In the wake of immigration enforcement that’s ensnared children, New York congressional Democrats are demanding the feds release information about the welfare of students held in detention, my colleague Jo Napolitano reports. | 
• A 13-year-old boy from Brazil, who has lived in a Boston suburb since 2021 with a pending asylum application, was scooped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after local police arrested him on a “credible tip” accusing him of making “a violent threat” against a classmate at school. The boy’s mother said her son wound up in a Virginia detention facility and was “desperate, saying ICE had taken him.” | 
• Chicago teenagers are among a group of activists patrolling the city’s neighborhoods to monitor ICE’s deployment to the city and help migrants avoid arrest. | 
• Immigration agents detained a Chicago Public Schools vendor employee outside a school, prompting educators to move physical education classes indoors out of an “abundance of caution.” | 
• A Des Moines, Iowa, high schooler was detained by ICE during a routine immigration check-in, placed in a Louisiana detention center and deported to Central America fewer than two weeks later. |
• A 15-year-old boy with disabilities — who was handcuffed outside a Los Angeles high school after immigration agents mistook him for a suspect — is among more than 170 U.S. citizens, including nearly 20 children, who have been detained during the first nine months of the president’s immigration push. | 
  

Trigger warning: After a Washington state teenager hanged himself on camera, the 13-year-old boy’s parents set out to find out what motivated their child to livestream his suicide on Instagram while online users watched. Evidence pointed to a sadistic online group that relies on torment, blackmail and coercion to weed out teens they deem weak. | 

Civil rights advocates in New York are sounding the alarm over a Long Island school district’s new AI-powered surveillance system, which includes round-the-clock audio monitoring with in-classroom microphones. | 

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Defense to restock hundreds of books after a lawsuit alleged students were banned from checking out texts related to race and gender from school libraries on military bases in violation of the First Amendment. | 

More than 600 armed volunteers in Utah have been approved to patrol campuses across the state to comply with a new law requiring armed security. Called school guardians, the volunteers are existing school employees who agree to be trained by local law enforcement and carry guns on campus. | 

No “Jackass”: Instagram announced new PG-13 content features that restrict teenagers from viewing posts that contain sex, drugs and “risky stunts.” | 

A Tuscaloosa, Alabama, school resource officer restrained and handcuffed a county commissioner after a spat at an elementary school awards program. | 

The number of guns found at Minnesota schools has increased nearly threefold in the last several years, new state data show. | 

More than half of Florida’s school districts received bomb threats on a single evening last week. The threats weren’t credible, officials said, and appeared to be “part of a hoax intended to solicit money.” | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

These realities compound the mental health challenges already intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. For many students, the fear of separation, the pressure to stay invisible and the stress of seeing loved ones targeted by inhumane immigration enforcement is deeply personal and destabilizing. 

There are real steps we can take to support the well-being of students. That includes protecting school areas from immigration enforcement, ensuring students know their rights and building systems of care that recognize the unique needs of these families.

But there’s another element we should be thinking about: our school-based mental health infrastructures. These spaces can be better equipped to support students in times of crisis, especially those disproportionately impacted by fear, racism and systemic injustice. 

This moment demands that we listen to students, not just because they are the most affected, but because they are already leading the way by helping to design and taking part in peer-support programs at their schools.  

At eight high schools across California, students are stepping into leadership roles as part of the,  launched by The Children’s Partnership in conjunction with the California Department of Health Care Services. The program was born from the vision of TCP’s youth-led policy council, the, which called for culturally responsive, student-led mental health support on campus. 

Young people are redefining what it means to support one another. At Serrano High School in Phelan north of San Bernardino, for example, peer leaders run a daily wellness center where they organize lunchtime wellness activities, host restorative circles and mentor English learner students, including those new to the U.S. To better serve their peers, several students proposed stationing themselves at the wellness center during an elective period so they could provide in-the-moment support to other students during the school day.  

At Sierra High School in San Bernardino, wellness ambassadors known as the “” have organized a Substance Abuse Prevention Fair that led to the identification and implementation of support-based alternatives to suspension, school policy changes and increased engagement among students. Since its inception more than three years ago, the Sunshine Crew has expanded into a structured, student-led wellness program with about 40 active members advancing mental health awareness, harm reduction education and public service initiatives.

This fall, the group is also launching a peer counseling program to complement its work. Across the pilot demonstration last year, 936 students statewide used peer support services,  underscoring the reach and impact of student-led mental health initiatives.

As one student put it, “This program is student-led, and it gave me the confidence to speak up, to lead and to support others.” Another reflected, “I didn’t think I’d graduate. Now, I lead school tours and tell my story to others.” 

This shift in school culture is the result of students driving change and institutions stepping back to make room. It happens when students are trusted, resourced and heard. And while programs like this are powerful, young people have made it clear: They need more. 

They want inclusive mental health education in classrooms. They want wellness centers that stay open beyond crisis moments. They want adults — educators, policymakers and community leaders — to treat mental health as a basic necessity, not a luxury. 

Now more than ever, in a climate where fear is being weaponized against vulnerable communities, we must commit to making schools places of healing, not more harm. That means investing in school-based mental health supports, expanding peer-to-peer programs, and ensuring that every student — regardless of immigration status, race or ZIP code — can access the tools they need to care for themselves and each other. 

We cannot separate mental health from the social and political realities young people are living through. And we cannot claim to support youth if we ignore the systems that harm them. When we center students — especially those from immigrant, low-income and LGBTQ communities — in designing and leading mental health strategies, we build schools that are not just supportive but transformative. 

Students have shown extraordinary resilience in the face of chaos. Their strength in navigating fear and instability is powerful, but it should not be the only tool they have. Resilience alone is not a solution; it’s a starting point. The youth are already doing the work. It’s time we meet them with the urgency, resources and respect they deserve. 

It may be that no one knows more about school-based mental health than Nancy Lever. As executive director of the University of Maryland’s , she’s dedicated her career to supporting and advancing efforts in schools around the country, allowing her a bird’s-eye view of how the most successful programs work.

Minnesota, with its long history of supporting school-based mental health, is a national leader in the work, as this series has shown, with kids in the majority of the state’s public schools having access to care.

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Different schools and districts have taken individualized approaches, but whatever the specific model, Lever has found that the most effective programs all have a few things in common.

The first, and perhaps the most important, Lever said, is a strong sense of partnership between school staff and members of the community. “The whole point of school-based mental health is it’s a wonderful model where people work together to create a system to make sure all youth mental health needs are being met,” she said. “The most successful models are going to have some level of family-school-community collaboration.”

Successful school-based mental health programs also acknowledge the central role played by existing school staff, even when community-based partners are brought in to provide additional mental health services for students, Lever said. This helps to build buy-in and integration and to keep programs running smoothly. “School employees — staff, social workers, school psychologists, counselors — are, to me, at the center of these programs.”

Then there are the teachers, whose collaboration with mental health programs is also essential. Classroom teachers often have the most interaction with students, and because of this they are able to observe behavioral changes that may indicate developing mental health concerns. Schools with effective mental health programs, Lever said, have developed an environment in which teachers feel comfortable reaching out to and collaborating with mental health staff, and building connections to parents.

“You want to be in a system that when you ask, ‘Who makes the most referrals?’ most often it is the educators, because they are at the front line,” Lever said. “They are the ones who are going to notice the kids who need the help.”

While including these elements in a school-based mental health program is essential for success, Lever said this still leaves room for innovation and adaptation to meet the unique needs of a community.

“It’s not a cookie-cutter approach,” she said, pointing to the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has, over the years, “done a lot of good work around trauma.” In Colorado, she said, school-based mental health has been supported by funds gained from marijuana taxes. Wisconsin’s program is supported by “strong leaders from their public instruction department,” Lever said, and Massachusetts “had a local champion who did amazing work.”

In Minnesota, Mark Sander, Hennepin County’s director of school mental health, has been one of those local champions. Decades ago, he cut his teeth as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Center for School Mental Health, working closely with founder and then-director Mark Weist.��When he moved to Minnesota in 2003, Sander said he “stumbled into” an opportunity to start the school-based mental health program in Minneapolis and later in Hennepin County.

He brought what he learned in Maryland and adapted it to fit the needs of the state and the children who attend its public schools. That included creating a funding model in Minnesota that captured potential funding from students’ health insurance and made sure clinicians could be paid for time they spent in schools doing work beyond one-on-one counseling — an essential element that he and his colleagues believed was missing from some grant funding for school-based mental health.

“I wanted to make sure there is protected time for clinicians to take time to chat with teachers, and understand the schools and be part of the culture,” Sander said.

This 360-view, combined with an emphasis on building a holistic culture that embeds mental health providers in the inner workings of schools, helped the state to create a highly regarded school-based mental health program that has been emulated by other states, Weist said. “Minnesota is one of the leaders in the nation on this work.”

Baltimore: Here for good

School-based mental health providers in Baltimore work hard to make their presence known.

“In our model, we advertise widely,” said Jennifer Lease, a school-based mental health provider at the city’s Thomas Jefferson Elementary/Middle School. “Throughout the year, members of our administrative staff are continually asking us, ‘How are you getting yourself out there? How are you making sure that everyone knows who you are?’”

With those questions in mind, Lease said that she and her colleagues in the school use a range of approaches to remind everyone — from students to teachers to parents to staff — that they are there to provide mental health support. “We’re doing classroom presentations with every class in the school. We’re posting on the social media platforms with QR codes that people can use to refer themselves to us. We’re holding events focused on mental health. We’re trying to get that message spread far and wide.”

This emphasis on establishing a presence in the school is a response, in part, Lease said, to larger societal concerns about young people’s mental health.

“Everybody is really being encouraged to make sure the people know about these services, especially after some feedback in the past that particularly centered on the topic of children’s mental health in the news, with a lot of doom and gloom about how things are getting so much worse. And then there were children who were saying, ‘I didn’t know there was a therapist at my school,’ or, ‘I didn’t know how to access those supports.’”

Lease, employed by the and contracted to work with students at Thomas Jefferson, said she and her colleagues don’t want to fade into the background. “We put a lot of focus and attention toward making sure people know how to find us, know who we are, that we’re integrated into the school community, even though we are technically not school-system employees.”

For school-based mental health providers, especially those who, like Lease and her colleagues, are employed by community-based partner agencies, getting out there and establishing yourself as an essential part of the school community is key. If the goal is to reach all kids who need mental health services, this  approach is a proven winner.

“We try to be seen as members of the school community, and really for those relationships, because it allows people to know how to find us and how to access services,” Lease said. “It reduces stigma if we’re seen as another member of the school community, whether you are a parent coming to pick a kid up from school, or a kid just swinging by our office.”

Maryland’s school-based mental health program has a long history, said Nikita Parson, associate director and trainee coordinator at the University of Maryland’s School Mental Health Program. As far back as 1989, staff in school-based health centers began noticing rising numbers of students complaining of physical ailments, including, Parson recalled, “somatic symptoms like headaches and stomachaches.” After taking a deeper look, school staff determined that the issues students were talking about were, she explained, “more social-emotional related for those kiddos rather than physical.”

Health center staff made referrals for visits with mental health providers, but the follow-up rate was low, Parson said.��Barriers like a lack of reliable transportation, childcare needs for other siblings and stigma within their community kept families from getting kids to the appointments.

In response, a team from the University of Maryland, led then by Weist, helped to expand mental health services in Baltimore’s school-based health centers. The idea was that if kids could get the mental health care they needed at school, they were far more likely to get parental support and show up for appointments, Parson explained. The model was built on the idea that rather than asking school employees like psychologists, social workers and guidance counselors to take on more responsibility for mental health care, schools would contract with credentialed community-based providers to come into the school and provide mental health care for students there.

Lever said the approach of boosting mental health care services in the schools rather than relying on outside locations was key to the program’s success. “If you want to work with children, you have to go where they are,” she said.

‘When it’s done well, it works.‘

If Baltimore’s visible, integrated approach to school-based mental health seems similar to Minnesota’s approach, that’s not an accident, Sander said. Many of the leaders of the school-based mental health movement in the United States, himself included, have worked together to develop models that can best serve students who would otherwise lack access. Their programs’ approaches mirror one another.

“There’s a reason school-based mental health often operates that way,” Sander said. “That’s because when it’s done well, it works.” It’s not a cut-and-paste approach, he said, because the needs are unique in each school district. But at the core, most successful school-based mental health programs lean heavily into the model that was developed in the late 1980s by Weist and his colleagues at the University of Maryland and successfully put into practice in states like Minnesota.

Just as in Baltimore, Sander said that an intentional integration of mental health clinicians in the school ecosystem in Minnesota has helped to normalize the idea of seeking mental health care. That support has been evident since the programs were founded in the state nearly 25 years ago.

Support for school-based mental health grew organically, Sander said, as children and adults around the state began to see the benefits of easy access to care. In the state Legislature, lawmakers from across the political spectrum, driven by personal experience and constituent requests, began to approve funding for these programs.

It got to the point where legislators wanted to make sure that school mental health was available in every county in the state, Sander said. Voters told their elected officials that they wanted these services available for their children, and the programs grew. Lawmakers, he said, “all wanted to make sure they had school mental health in their district. It took off in a good way, and it’s just grown from there.” Today, Minnesota’s school-based mental health programs are funded by a combination of private and public insurance as well as $20 million in state funding.

Lever can’t help but feel heartened by the state’s support for school-based mental health programs.

“I love what Minnesota’s doing,” she said. “They were part of our national quality initiative. We gave them some background, and they just took it and ran with it and brought it to a higher level. It’s a real accomplishment that truly benefits all the children of the state.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Families and schools play a crucial role in recognizing when a young person needs help and providing or connecting them with it, but they cannot possibly do it all. Fortunately, there is an untapped opportunity to expand support: the community-based organizations and out-of-school-time programs where young people already spend time, form trusting relationships, and feel a sense of safety and belonging.

Summer camps, youth mentoring, sports leagues, after-school clubs and countless other experiences — these are spaces where trusted relationships are built, often over years. Reaching young people through the organizations they already trust is crucial to broadening and strengthening the mental health safety net. With the right tools and training, they can become powerful front-line hubs for mental health support. But that requires real investment in partnerships, resources, and staff training.

Let’s be clear: This is not about turning after-school programs into clinics. It’s about embedding a layer of basic mental health support into places where young people already feel a sense of belonging. We can equip nonprofit staff to recognize, respond to and refer youth in need to professionals when necessary — ensuring the young people they serve are seen, supported and connected with the help they need. 

Today’s young people are more open than ever about mental health. Research from our organizations, (JED) and (APA), among others, shows that this generation is more self-aware and ready to advocate for emotional well-being than any before. And they are looking for support in familiar spaces where they already spend time: APA’s 2024 report found that more than 80% of young people recommend schools and community‑based organizations expand individual counseling services.

But openness alone isn’t enough. Support needs to meet them where they are.

Everyone who is part of a young person’s life is on the front lines of addressing young people’s urgent mental health needs. Rather than putting the burden on youth themselves to find support, we can build mental health expertise in the places they already are. 

The 150 organizations in APA’s Alliance Community, for example, collectively serve 31 million young people each year. Through these and so many other organizations, youth are already forming close bonds with the tutors, coaches and counselors they interact with at nonprofit organizations — putting these caring adults in an ideal position to recognize and respond to early signs of distress.

For many organizations it is not a big leap from their existing programming to supporting youth mental health. Sports, arts and crafts, being outside in nature, socializing with others, and so many other activities common to nonprofit youth programs – these are all key components to boosting well-being.

All of this presents an important opportunity to equip youth-serving staff with the tools and training they need to consistently and effectively support young people’s mental health.

Any community-based leader or staff member will tell you that providing mental health support is already part of the job. The reality is that they are often called upon, day or night, to help youth navigate urgent needs, typically under significant resource constraints – and too often without appropriate training or the institutional infrastructure for addressing and escalating mental health issues and crises. 

That is not sustainable, and does a disservice to both the young people and staff members. If we want to truly support youth, we have to support the people who support them by investing in training and mental health infrastructure that is effective and sustainable.

Many funders have longstanding relationships with youth-serving organizations, presenting an opportunity to extend their philanthropy to an area that can truly change lives: the mental health and emotional well-being of the young people who participate in these cherished programs. 

What does that look like in practice?

• Help organizations create strategic plans for how they will support the mental health of the youth they serve, including building basic infrastructure such as protocols, resource directories and safety nets to take pressure off individual staff members
• Fund staff training so youth workers know how to recognize emotional distress and respond appropriately
• Support partnerships between community-based organizations and mental health providers, including warm referral systems and local collaboration
• Invest in the well-being of frontline workers, many of whom are navigating secondary stress and burnout without support

Community-based organizations are uniquely positioned to meet the moment by providing critical support that can complement and extend school-based efforts. By now — and fostering stronger collaboration across every corner of the youth-serving ecosystem — we can build a more cohesive, responsive, and resilient network to support young people.