COVID Brief: State Lawmakers Spend Federal Cash on Mental Health
A weekly roundup of headlines about how the pandemic is shaping schools and education policy, vetted by AEI Visiting Fellow John Bailey
;)
Education news and commentary, delivered right to your inbox.
Sign up for 蜜桃影视 newsletter.
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter
This is our biweekly briefing on the pandemic, vetted by John Bailey. .
This Week鈥檚 Top Story
Awash in Federal Money, State Lawmakers Tackle Worsening Youth Mental Health
- Via Stateline
- New York City: 鈥淢ayor Eric Adams announced a broad mental health agenda that includes a youth suicide prevention program.”
- North Carolina: 鈥淕ov. Roy Cooper declared that the state would spend $7.7 million to provide suicide prevention training for university and community college personnel, create a mental health hotline for students and develop resiliency training for faculty, staff and students.”
- New Jersey: 鈥淕ov. Phil Murphy unveiled a $14 million mental health grant program that targets K-12 schools with the greatest need.”
- Rhode Island: 鈥淕ov. Daniel McKee introduced a $7.2 million program to train K-12 school employees to detect mental illness and suicide risk, respond to it and connect students and families to community social services.”
- “Last year, Illinois, Iowa and Maryland launched programs to provide mental health training for school personnel.”
- “And Arizona, California and South Carolina raised Medicaid reimbursement rates to incentivize behavioral health providers to provide services in schools.”
- Related: California .
The Big Three
- “It may look like the pandemic is over; stadiums are open again, crowds are everywhere, and hardly a mask in sight. But COVID hurt a lot of things you can’t easily see, especially in schools.
- Harlem Children鈥檚 Zone founder Geoffrey Canada: “I feel like I just need to stand on a mountaintop and just yell, ‘Take this seriously! Everything is at stake right now!’ “
- ” 鈥楾here’s a whole cohort of young people who are not going to get the kind of education that’s going to allow them to get the best jobs,鈥� Canada said. 鈥業t’s going to cost lots of kids tens of thousands of dollars over their earnings, or some, hundreds of thousands of dollars.鈥� “
COVID Exploited Political Divisions Along With Racial and Health Disparities
- on a new in The Lancet. More via .
- “For deaths, they found a fourfold difference in rates across states, with fatalities lowest in Hawaii and New Hampshire and highest in Arizona and Washington, D.C.”
- “Overall, they found that states with higher poverty, lower levels of education, less access to quality health care and less trust in others had disproportionately higher rates of COVID infections and deaths.”
Education Department Approves Extensions for ESSER Spending
- directed to districts, known as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief I, said James Lane, senior adviser in the Office of the Secretary, in an email to K-12 Dive.鈥�
- “The seven states, along with the District of Columbia, that requested and received approval to extend districts鈥� ESSER I spending timeline now have until March 30, 2024, or 14 months beyond Jan. 28, 2023, to draw down those funds.鈥�
- The states are Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.
Federal Updates
White House Disbanding Its COVID-19 Team in May: .
Food and Drug Administration Authorizes Pfizer Bivalent COVID Booster for Kids 6 Months Through Age 4: In amending the emergency use authorization, the FDA said the .
City & State News
New Budget Numbers: from New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, plus Seattle, from Burbio.
Connecticut: “Gov. Ned Lamont and Education Commissioner Charlene M. Russell Tucker today that the Connecticut State Department of Education is preparing to launch the 鈥� a new statewide program for students in grades 6 to 9 that will provide intensive tutoring in mathematics to accelerate learning and address learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Illinois: Wednesday but still promised to increase funds for pandemic recovery, migrant students and other needs in the coming school year鈥檚 budget.
Michigan:
New Mexico
- Online tutoring company
- In rare move, New Mexico adds weeks鈥� worth of extra K-12 class time
COVID-19 Research
Do We Need a Spring COVID-19 Booster?
- “If you鈥檙e immunocompromised and/or an older adult with a comorbidity (and it鈥檚 been six months since an infection or last booster), a spring booster may be a good idea to stay ahead of the virus.”
- “Will it be official U.S. policy? We don鈥檛 know. There are rumors of FDA conversations happening behind closed doors. Hopefully, we will have an answer soon. But, as you can tell, it鈥檚 not a straightforward call.”
COVID Origins
- Advisers to the World Health Organization have urged China to after new findings were briefly shared on an international database used to track pathogens.
- New York Times: “An international team of virus experts said 鈥� that they had , adding evidence to the case that the worst pandemic in a century could have been ignited by an infected animal that was being dealt through the illegal wildlife trade.”
- Vox: “.”
Viewpoints
Most Americans Doubt Their Children Will Be Better Off
- on a new
- The poll shows 鈥渟hows growing skepticism about the value of a college degree and record-low levels of overall happiness.鈥�
Schools Bought Tech to Accelerate Learning. Is It Working?
- “With federal COVID-relief funding, schools purchased tech tools to help students make up for the unfinished learning that happened during the most critical period of the pandemic.
- “While there are digital tools that are pushing the envelope on learning acceleration, there are other ed tech tools that claim to accelerate learning but aren鈥檛 actually aligned with the principles of learning acceleration, said Bailey Cato Czupryk, the senior vice president of learning, impact and design for TNTP, a nonprofit that consults with districts on teacher training, instructional strategy and other education issues.”
- “Zearn 鈥� is an example many experts pointed to. A analyzing the impact of the Nebraska education department鈥檚 statewide partnership with Zearn found that elementary and middle school students who consistently used Zearn had 2.5 times the growth in their state assessment scores than students who did not use Zearn.”
- “The development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet and the mobile phone. .”
鈥� And on a Lighter Note
The Look-a-Like Cam: 鈥� wait for the end.
Happy National Puppy Day: .
For even more COVID policy and education news, .
Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to 蜜桃影视.
Did you use this article in your work?
We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.
John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a fellow at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. He previously served in the White House and U.S. Department of Education. He worked on pandemic preparedness at the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2006. Walton Family Foundation and CZI provide financial support to 蜜桃影视.
[email protected]