School Choice and the Mental Illness Epidemic

The epidemic of mental illness in students is growing. The newest statistics from the U.S. Surgeon General report that adolescents experiencing depressive and anxiety symptoms have doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 25% experiencing depressive symptoms and 20% experiencing anxiety symptoms. These statistics are frightening, but the good news is that schools are not helpless in this crisis. This School Choice Week (Jan. 23–29), let’s remember that there are simple, tangible steps that teachers, school counselors, and administrators can take to mitigate the mental health challenges children face. 

The importance of family support in dealing with mental health issues is well known, but schools also have an important role to play. By emphasizing social-emotional learning early on in education, schools can provide children with a strong cognitive foundation. Without the ability to regulate emotions, cognitive learning is barely possible, and children are more likely to break down emotionally at some point. Often this happens in high school, when the pressure to achieve academically increases the burden for children who may not have developed the capacity to cope with stress and adversity.

How can schools be part of the solution? They can teach social-emotional learning through daily check-ins, mindfulness training, and even physical exercise to relieve stress. Learning programs like Roots of Empathy bring mothers and babies into classrooms to improve observational skills and reduce aggression; The Question Project encourages high schoolers to focus on articulating their thoughts, building community, and finding purpose. Schools can use these unique programs to help alleviate stress in our children.

Schools should also de-emphasize test scores as the sole predictor of future success. Many children are not conventional learners and need an experiential or creative approach to learning. School choice, by recognizing that not all children learn the same way, helps children avoid experiencing a sense of failure if they are relationally or creatively driven rather than academically driven. Giving children options for success in life helps them understand that they don’t have to meet a single standard of academic conformity.

Another shift schools can make to address today’s mental health epidemic involves start times. Most adolescents suffer from a condition called sleep-wake phase delay. This means that adolescents produce melatonin later in the evening than adults do, often not feeling sleep pressure until one or two o’clock in the morning. With early school start times, kids often do not get enough sleep – a major contributor to depression and distractibility. Remote learning was actually helpful for this phenomenon because children get more sleep. To adjust to this developmental reality, schools could start classes later in the morning.  

One other important way schools can address mental health issues is by working to reduce teasing and social exclusion. I never forgot the pain of being bullied as a middle school child; it shaped who I am as a person and as a therapist. We know so much today about the damage such experiences can do to children. Teachers, administrators, and guidance counselors should address these issues head-on and take a hard line against hateful or exclusionary behavior. Empathy is not something we are born with. It is something that is taught to children by parents, teachers, and other adults. Schools can create ethics departments and courses that help children put themselves into another person’s emotional shoes. 

Finally, schools need services to address mental health conditions early, so that kids may be more readily treated. It’s critical that we get more mental-health professionals and paraprofessionals in schools to address the rising number of kids with depression, anxiety, ADHD, behavioral issues, and social disorders. Schools need to advocate for more funding to support these needs. The more we spot troubled kids, address their issues, and work closely with parents, the better the chance that we can turn this crisis around.

This School Choice Week, let’s renew our commitment to making schools places that support children in overcoming the mental-health crisis we face.