Imagine how much stronger our cities would be if we were to embrace an ecosystem of care, with faith institutions, businesses, and local organizations working alongside families and schools.  

Across the country, there is a deep youth mental health crisis that is fueling a trend of violence among our babies. In Denver, Colorado, an average of under 25 are affected by gun violence each year. In Alameda County, California, gun violence is the for children ages 1 to 17. 

According to Everytown statistics, are impacted by firearms every day in the United States. As parents and guardians, we pour our whole selves into our children. No one should ever have to endure the agony of losing a child, especially to something as preventable as gun violence.  

Earlier this month, in my community, Evette Jeffrey, a 16-year-old girl in the Bronx was fired by another teenager. As a mother, an educator, and a lifelong Bronxite, this tragedy was personal for me, and I saw firsthand the impact of this devastation across the borough. The following week, another two babies were victims of gun violence in Brooklyn. It is unacceptable that over 30 children under the age of 18 have been killed or injured in New York City this year alone.  

The pandemic lockdowns left our young people feeling isolated and emotionally adrift. The CDC reports the number of children experiencing persistent sadness or hopelessness remains than in 2013. For two years, we told our children that their entire lives are online, from their instruction to enrichment, and beyond. Now, we鈥檙e seeing the repercussions: Our kids don鈥檛 know who to talk to or where to go when they are in crisis.  

Teens are increasingly tethered to their phones 鈥� half of those aged 12 to 17 reported four or more hours of daily screen time between July 2021 and December 2023. Throughout the pandemic, our children were forced to live their lives through social media and virtual schooling. Now, as we bring them back to in person socialization, it鈥檚 no wonder that they鈥檙e ill equipped.   

As the leader of the nation鈥檚 largest school district, it is my responsibility to lead New York City Public Schools鈥� response to this mental health epidemic at its root. If we are to do right by our kids, we cannot just address the symptoms of this crisis. The solution lies in community interdependence.  

We鈥檝e seen glimpses of this kind of symbiosis at work in places like , which like New York City, is offering free online mental health counseling, or , where local nonprofits are supporting afterschool programs and other services at high-poverty campuses. We must continue to scale this work. 

In our schools, we must teach our kids how to use technology responsibly and appropriately. Devices can be used to enrich and support classroom instruction, offering real-time support in math class or opportunities to explore the world without leaving the neighborhood.  

We must also learn to take care of ourselves so that we can be better and stronger for our kids. We are role models, leaders, and safe, trusted grown-ups. Our students must be able to turn to us without judgement in times of need. 

But this goes beyond us. For this to work, I call upon our business owners to be more than just bystanders. When you welcome our kids by name when they enter your store, it shows that there are adults who care and who they can turn to when they need to feel seen, heard, and protected.  

I call upon our faith leaders to be active partners with the schools in their communities. If they see a child who is struggling, reach out so we can get them help before it’s too late.  

Robust in-school mental health supports are essential, but they can鈥檛 stand alone. We need community mental health partners to amplify their impact. Local universities, we need you to bolster the mental health worker pipeline and place young professionals-in-training in schools to build out capacity.  

We鈥檙e asking our community-based organizations and leaders with social capital in our neighborhoods to keep their ears to the ground 鈥� aware of brewing tensions, conflicts, and signs of distress 鈥� so we can act before violence erupts. 

The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments that 鈥渄eveloping and sustaining comprehensive mental health systems should be a shared endeavor between schools and community partners.鈥� We all bear a collective responsibility in ensuring that every child gets the bright and bold future they deserve, and it is up to us to work together to identify at-risk youth and intervene early. As New York City mourns the loss of one of our own, I remain committed to honoring that life by protecting others. Our young people are crying out for help, and we must answer. It will take all of us. Let鈥檚 get to work. All of us 鈥� community members, business leaders, faith leaders, and families 鈥� need to rally together to make sure our students have a safe adult in their lives they can turn to in times of crisis. Let鈥檚 get to work.

The biannual from NC Child and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) is now available. In addition to evaluating 14 key indicators of children’s health, the 2025 report includes a special section highlighting school-based mental health resources.

According to a , the decision to focus on youth mental health was driven by worsening trends and the need for greater support services.

鈥淲e know that schools play a vital role in the lives of children,鈥� said NCIOM President and CEO Michelle Ries. 鈥淪chools are where children learn and where they build connections. What happens in school matters for their development and for their health.鈥�

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The role of schools

This edition’s special section covers access to student mental health support staff, mental health referral services, the connection between physical activity and mental health, and social media and mental health.

鈥淭oday鈥檚 youth are dealing with rising rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation 鈥� and what happens at school can contribute to those issues through peer pressure and bullying,鈥� said NC Child Executive Director Erica Palmer Smith. “However, what happens at school can also help alleviate the challenges young people face. We need to look at the factors contributing to the youth mental health crisis and how to best address them.鈥�

According to the press release, there were 1,928 students for each school psychologist in 2024. That’s nearly four times the 500:1 ratio recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists.

鈥淪chool psychologists, counselors, and social workers provide vital support for students with developmental, learning-based, and social-emotional needs,鈥� said Ries. 鈥淭hey are often on the frontlines when it comes to prevention, intervention, supporting students in the foster care or juvenile justice system, or helping children who are at-risk”.

鈥淣orth Carolina faces a youth mental health crisis, and our school systems should be part of the solution to help address students鈥� needs,鈥� said Dr. Ellen Essick, section chief at NC Healthy Schools within the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 鈥淭he solutions are less about fixing students, teachers, or our schools, and more about fixing a system that鈥檚 not supporting our students, teachers, and schools satisfactorily.鈥�

Grade summary

The report card evaluates North Carolina on 14 indicators of child health and well-being. Those indicators fall into four broad categories: secure homes and neighborhoods, access to care, healthy births, and health risk factors.

Below is a summary of the grades for each indicator, organized by category.

Secure homes and neighborhoods

F – Housing and economic security

F – Child abuse and neglect

Access to care

D – Oral health

F – School health

C – Health services utilization and immunizations

A – Insurance coverage

Healthy births

B – Breastfeeding

B – Preconception and maternal health and support

F – Birth outcomes

C – Teen births

Health risk factors

D – healthy eating and active living

D – Tobacco, alcohol, substance use

F – Mental health

D – Education

More details about these grades and indicators can be found in the .

According to the press release, NC Child and NCIOM hope that the key findings in the latest report card can guide parents, decision makers, school personnel, and other child health practitioners across the state.

鈥淲hat we know is that these grades 鈥� and their impact on our state’s children 鈥� can change for the better,鈥� said Smith.聽鈥淭he Child Health Report Card tells us what鈥檚 working and where we need to improve so that every child in North Carolina can reach their full potential.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

A quarter of the 13-18 year olds in the study used devices for two hours each school day, which lasts around seven hours. The averages outnumber minutes allotted for lunch and period breaks combined, showing youth are distracted by phones throughout huge chunks of class time. 

, is the first to accurately paint a picture of adolescent phone behavior by using a third party app to monitor usage over four months in 2023. Previous studies have relied on parent surveys or self-reported estimates.聽

鈥淭hat鈥檚 pretty alarming 鈥� It’s too much, not only because of the missed learning opportunity in the classroom,鈥� said researcher Lauren Hale, sleep expert and professor at Stony Brook鈥檚 Renaissance School of Medicine. 

鈥淭hey’re missing out on real life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable for growth during a critical period of one’s life,鈥� she told 蜜桃影视. 

Hale and the other researchers鈥� early findings come from 117 teens for which they had school data, just one slice of a pool from over 300 participants, which will be analyzed and used to consider how phone usage impacts sleep, obesity, depression and other outcomes. 

Teens most often used messaging, Instagram and video streaming platforms. While most spent about 26 minutes on Instagram, in one extreme case, a student was on the app for 269 minutes 鈥� nearly 5 hours 鈥� during the school day.

Data reveal particular groups of students are using their phones more than their peers: Girls and older kids, aged 16 to 18, spent a half hour above the average 1.5 hours; and Latino and multiracial students spent on average 15 minutes above average. 

Additionally, though researchers cannot hypothesize as to why based on the descriptive data, kids who have one or more parents with a college degree used smartphones less during the school day. 

The findings are particularly concerning given young people missed key social years with peers during the pandemic, the impact of which is felt in ways big and small, like being hesitant to work with peers in groups.

Teachers in contact with Hale since research went public in early February say of the 1.5 hour average, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 too low an estimate. They think we underestimated.鈥�

is among several districts with plans to institute a cellphone ban, though such bans are inconsistently implemented and new research from the UK suggests bans alone .

鈥淭hese results are consistent, supportive evidence of anecdotal stories from across the country about kids missing out on learning and social opportunities. [They] can help justify efforts to provide a coherent smartphone policy for schools,鈥� said Hale, adding that such policy should not be left up to individual teachers to enforce.

Before the pandemic, the idea of communicating with a therapist via text seemed unthinkable. Then COVID closures and an unprecedented surge in changed everything.

I know what a difference it makes for teens because I talk to them almost every day.

I am a therapist who works for , New York City鈥檚 free mental health service connecting young people with licensed multilingual therapists through the secure (and ) platform Talkspace. This effort is breaking down barriers to mental health care, especially for those who may struggle to find a therapist who meets their needs.

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The program, launched a year ago this month by Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is available to anyone ages 13 to 17 living in New York City, regardless of their school, immigration status, income level, or insurance status. No payment or insurance information is required.

While we ask all teens to share a parent or guardian鈥檚 information so that they can provide consent, in special circumstances, permits waiving that requirement, for example when the young person is emancipated, incarcerated, or if notification is deemed detrimental to their well-being. That is something that the licensed therapist assesses.

For many teens, it鈥檚 the first time they鈥檝e ever talked with a therapist. And my goal is to create a space where teens feel like they can be themselves. Asking questions, staying curious, and not making assumptions are key to helping young people feel supported.

While many of our interactions are asynchronous and over text, I always encourage a live face-to-face video session or offer to send asynchronous audio or video messages. I want them to know that it鈥檚 OK to ask questions that can help them better understand therapy, mental health, themselves, and how to advocate for their needs.

They鈥檙e often curious to learn about depression, ADHD, PTSD, and other diagnoses they may have heard about or from their friends. Sometimes, they ask if I鈥檓 a real human or if I鈥檓 AI. They like hearing that I grew up in New York, in the Bronx and Yonkers, that I have a cat, and the types of music I enjoy.

Teens may be experiencing anxiety or depression, or they may be grieving. But they don鈥檛 need to be experiencing symptoms of mental illness or living with loss to participate. They may be navigating a new relationship or breakup, adjusting to changes in their family dynamics, or experiencing uncertainty about what they want to do after high school.

We talk about what鈥檚 causing them stress and what will improve their quality of life. It鈥檚 rewarding when I hear from a teen client who has tried a technique we鈥檝e practiced, like deep breathing, , , or communication skills, and found that it works. From my experience, teens are more likely than adults to share their progress as it鈥檚 happening, rather than to reflect on it several months later.

How effective is NYC Teenspace? More than 16,000 teens have signed up for the service so far. that 65 percent of users reported improvement in their mental health, and that number is growing. Underserved neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx lead the city in signups, and 60 percent of users identify as Black or Hispanic.

Going forward, I hope to see even more teens using it, especially boys. shows that teenage girls have been more than three times as likely to seek help on the platform. We have work to do to increase reach to teen boys, who may encounter more .

Still, I鈥檓 astonished by telehealth鈥檚 ability to promote strong connections with users, particularly Gen Z. These digital natives communicate effortlessly through text and other online media. They express themselves in ways an adult patient typically wouldn鈥檛. They share photos of their pets, selfies, memes, audio clips 鈥� and, yes, lots of emojis 鈥� offering glimpses into their world that enrich the therapeutic process.

NYC Teenspace therapists can communicate in 13 different languages, and the platform uses translation support in 120 languages.

No matter what their language, teens tend to find on-demand messaging a more comfortable, accessible option in which to open up about their challenges in ways they might find difficult IRL. Between school, commuting, extracurriculars, and other responsibilities, some teens have avoided therapy because it has been challenging to get to an in-person appointment. Having a private space can often be a challenge for any New Yorker, and this is no different for teens. More than half of all users prefer exclusively engaging with their therapist via messaging.

The current is 1 for every 272 students, and there are even fewer licensed mental health professionals. Last year, nearly in New York City reported experiencing mild to severe depressive symptoms. They worry about the future or something bad happening to them or to their families, which may be a sign of anxiety.

Skeptics of therapy in a digital space may say that the experience of in-person treatment can鈥檛 be replicated. In some instances, this is true. However, therapy that can happen via telehealth can connect with teens in a way that meets their needs. As any teen today can tell you, messaging is how they communicate with their closest friends. Online therapy is also much easier than in-person appointments to scale amid unprecedented teen mental health needs.

As with any treatment, it鈥檚 important to know the limitations. NYC Teenspace therapists are responsible for assessing clients for risks, including risks to themselves or others. If a teen presents with significant concerns like self-harm or suicidality, their therapist is expected to share resources, make appropriate referrals, and intervene as needed to ensure safety.

For the majority of teens who are not in crisis, NYC Teenspace offers a vital space where they can explore their emotions, develop coping strategies, and build resilience. These are skills they can bring with them as they grow into adulthood.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

In partnership with Fresno Pacific University and six school districts throughout Tulare County, the year-long program housed within the county鈥檚 California Center on Teaching Careers hopes to curb shortages that have left schools throughout the state with student to counselor ratios at 1:461, nearly double the . 

Since its launch at the start of this school year, the has provided one on one support to a small pilot cohort of twelve counselors and looks to expand statewide. Counselors in training earn a master鈥檚 of arts in school counseling and a $45,000 living stipend while being mentored by experienced counselors in their region. 

鈥淭hrough this pathway, we’re truly able to grow our own, which means preparing individuals of our own communities who grew up here, who know parents 鈥� students of our own schools, to then be part of our system,鈥� said Marvin Lopez, the Center鈥檚 executive director.

The program is hands-on, requiring 1,200 hours of clinical training and field experience, 400 hours beyond the required amount to obtain a credential. 

Like other residencies to boost teacher pipelines, the model aims to recruit a more representative pool by eliminating the financial barriers and loans professionals often take on to enter the field. 

Graduates of teacher residencies, which the SCR program has been modeled after, stay in their school districts at much higher rates than those who have entered through traditional or other alternative pathways, 鈥渟tabilizing鈥� the force, according to the . The pools they recruit are also more racially diverse. 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Why launch this residency now, and what’s at stake without it? 

Marvin Lopez: I’m going to take you back a decade. In 2012, we began looking at residency models, specifically for teachers, across the nation. We spent six years looking at models in California, Chicago, New York City, to see what are best practices and spend time with some universities that have been running teacher residencies for some time. 

We realized we needed to bring a pathway like that to our area 鈥� we’re in this central region of the state in California, near Sequoia, Yosemite, Fresno, Bakersfield. It鈥檚 very agricultural, rural, low-income with many high needs schools. We realized that not only do we need a model like this for preparing teachers, but also mental health professionals 鈥� school-based social workers and school counselors. We tackled the entire ecosystem of our school. 

Through this pathway, we’re truly able to grow our own, which means preparing individuals of our own communities who grew up here, who know their communities, who know parents. The students who were students of our own schools to then be part of our system. 

To your question of why, when you look at the student ratio of school counselors and students in our area, it’s 1 to 460+, which is double what is recommended nationally. There’s a gap that we鈥檙e trying to close and bridge. By having this pathway in place, it’s allowing us to not only recruit from local talents, but also prepare them in a way that gives them a full year of clinical experience. The doesn’t lie.

What challenges did you all come up against before launching, and what did you do to overcome them? 

As a new pathway, [it required] a lot of informing and educating school leaders about the benefits, and sharing retention data about residencies. I wouldn’t call it a challenge, it was a learning experience. 

How might this residency impact what you all are seeing with regards to the youth mental health crisis, particularly as you mentioned that this county you’re serving is predominantly high needs, schools that, as you mentioned, have large shortages of mental health support staff? 

We’re looking at the entire ecosystem of our schools and the workload that teachers have, specifically after the pandemic. The silver lining is that a lot of mental wellness issues came to light and the public are more open to conversation. It’s now more important and obvious that we do need more services; school counselors play a big role in that ecosystem as well as social workers. Providing another part of the support that our students need in the classroom, that’s the impact that we see. We’re providing more wrap-around support to our schools and students by preparing teachers, social workers, and school counselors through our residency model. 

I‘m wondering about the scale of this, what’s interest been like since you launched in September and how large of a cohort do you hope to recruit this first year? 

Initially our plan was to have a small pilot cohort of 8. We launched with 12, and now we’re getting requests from districts for next year already. It looks like that might double, and it’s because of the needs of our districts and the value they see added by having residents at their sites and the impact they’re already having with their students. 

Our goal is to actually scale up and expand our program throughout the state. We’re working closely with a couple of county offices around this work, and we are always willing to share best practices as well as guide and provide support to any other regions that are looking to implement a similar program. 

If you had to boil it down, what are three things that you think that folks who are taking on this kind of work should keep in mind? 

First, having a vision that’s student centered. Second, building and nurturing partnerships with your districts and universities. And ultimately, providing quality mentorship for the residents, working alongside district leadership to make sure that those individuals are the right fit for a school. 

Is there anything I haven’t asked you but that’s on your mind or just that you want me to know? 

Beyond the living stipend for residents, we also provide a stipend for the mentors that’s $4,000. That’s unique because they’re spending quite a bit of time throughout the year. It’s important to recognize the efforts that not only the residents are putting into this, but the mentors who play a huge component in this process.

The on teens鈥� mental health are well-documented. But could bullying also shape their future aspirations?

In an effort to address rising incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia, New York City鈥檚 Education Department launched an anti-hate hotline, officials said Monday.

The goal is to streamline related to hate, harassment, and discrimination, adding another avenue on top of a four-year-old online portal for all bullying complaints.

The hotline (718-935-2889), staffed with Education Department employees, will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Callers can remain anonymous, but the pre-recorded greeting suggests having your student鈥檚 ID number or your staff ID number to 鈥渆xpedite your call.鈥�

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鈥淭here is zero tolerance for hate in our schools,鈥� incoming Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement, 鈥渁nd this new hotline will help ensure incidents are reported and addressed.鈥�

The announcement was part of a suite of initiatives the Education Department highlighted as the city commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people. More than 250 people were taken hostage and Israel鈥檚 subsequent attack on Gaza has killed , including many children, and has led to a.

Prior to the new hotline, students and staff members could report incidents with their school or through a bullying portal the department launched in 2020 in response to a

From September to January last school year, the city saw roughly 440 school reports about incidents related to ethnicity or national origin, up about 30% from the same time the year before, . There were nearly 290 reports related to religion, up nearly 78% from the year before.

, according to the annual school surveys. About 40% of the middle and high school students who responded to the survey reported seeing harassment based on race, ethnicity, religion, or immigration status, up from 30% in 2019.

Many people had been asking the Education Department to create a hotline or dedicated way to specifically report hate-rated incidents, including , who faced a raucous student protest over her support of Israel in the aftermath of the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

Marder recently sued the city for failing to protect her before students began marching in the hallways, calling for her ouster. She has, however, remained at the school 鈥� she now helps oversee student discipline as one of the school鈥檚 deans 鈥� and has been heartened that the new school year has started off relatively calm under a new principal. She spent much of the past year calling on outgoing schools Chancellor David Banks to create a hotline like the one that was just launched.

鈥淚鈥檓 very happy they are finally doing this though it shouldn鈥檛 have taken a year,鈥� she told Chalkbeat.

As , the Education Department鈥檚 Office of Safety and Prevention Partnerships expected to deploy additional staffers to public schools on Monday, officials said. And ahead of Oct. 7, Education Department officials sent reminders to principals about the role of schools to create safe spaces for students to engage with current events 鈥� but in ways that ensure schools don鈥檛 take political stances, officials said. Students have previously complained that

Additionally, the Education Department this fall is offering new anti-discrimination staff training with a specific focus on antisemitism and Islamophobia. The city鈥檚 Hidden Voices curriculum 鈥� which focuses on historical figures whose stories seldom get told 鈥� is expected to release installments by the end of the school year on Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans, and the city is encouraging of different cultures and their histories. The school system鈥檚 is continuing to meet this year, as a way to demonstrate to students how to build bridges across different groups.

This story was originally published by . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at . 

This story mentions suicide.  If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

LOUISVILLE 鈥� Anthem Medicaid announced Wednesday it has launched a free digital mental wellness course, which is available to 1,512 students in 17 Kentucky schools.

The announcement comes during and as more adolescents, especially girls, .

Called 鈥�,鈥� the interactive program is for students in grades eight to 10. According to EVERFI from Blackbaud, which designed the course, it contains , each 15 minutes long.

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The course, Anthem says, exposes students 鈥渢o the experiences of others in order to develop awareness and empathy, reduce stigma, and provide facts on the prevalence and symptoms of mental health conditions.鈥�

Students then 鈥渆xplore their own mental health, identify challenges they may face, and develop concrete strategies for managing those challenges while increasing their awareness of resources and empowering them with the knowledge, skills, and language necessary to identify and support a peer in need or at risk.鈥�

show a tour of mental health through the program, starting with a lesson on what mental health is and ending with the chance to create a personal wellness plan.

Since the onset of COVID-19, In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that sadness and hopelessness had increased from pre-pandemic levels, especially for teen girls. In 2017, 41% of female high school students and 21% of male high school students felt sad or hopeless. By 2021,, respectively.

鈥淵oung people need resources and education from trusted sources to protect their mental health,鈥� Leon Lamoreaux, market president for Anthem Medicaid, said in a statement.

The Understanding Mental Wellness program 鈥渨ill help us reach students from all over the Commonwealth and equip them with tools and strategies that will make a positive difference in their lives for years to come,鈥� Lamoreaux said.

Tom Davidson, the CEO of EVERFI, said the goal in creating this program was to 鈥�(benefit) those who are impacted by mental health challenges, those who want to build and maintain positive mental health and those who have the opportunity to positively .鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .

Taken together, the trio would create sweeping restrictions on children鈥檚 access to social media, impose new requirements on social media companies to ensure their products aren鈥檛 harmful to youth mental health and bolster educators鈥� digital surveillance obligations to ensure kids aren鈥檛 swiping through their favorite feeds in class. 

The three separate digital safety bills have bipartisan support and lawmakers could greenlight them as part of the FAA reauthorization legislation, which faces a Friday deadline. If passed, the legislative package could potentially end years of debate on these thorny questions and would mark the most consequential effort to regulate tech companies and children鈥檚 online safety in decades.

鈥淧arents know there鈥檚 no good reason for a child to be doom-scrolling or binge-watching reels that glorify unhealthy lifestyles,鈥� Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who is co-sponsoring The Kids Off Social Media Act, said in . 鈥淵oung students should have their eyes on the board, not their phones.鈥� 

The move comes as lawmakers across the political spectrum sound an alarm over concerns that teens’ addiction to their social media feeds 鈥� complete with algorithms designed to keep them hooked and coming back for more 鈥� have exacerbated mental health issues in young people. It follows congressional testimony by of knowing that apps like Instagram inflamed body image issues and other negative triggers among youth but failed to act to mitigate the harm while upholding a 鈥渟ee no evil, hear no evil鈥� culture.

The controversial and heavily debated bills saw new life in January after social media executives were grilled during a contentious congressional hearing and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents who said their children were damaged, and in some cases died, after the company鈥檚 algorithms fed them a barrage of pernicious content. 

But critics contend the provisions amount to heavy-handed and unconstitutional censorship that fails to confront the root cause of young people鈥檚 anguish 鈥� and in some cases could hurt them by limiting their access to educational materials, blocking information designed to help them deal with mental health issues or by subjecting them to greater online surveillance.

The three amendments are:

• The Kids Online Safety Act would require tech companies to 鈥渆xercise reasonable care鈥� to ensure their services don鈥檛 surface in children鈥檚 feeds material deemed harmful, including posts that promote suicide, eating disorders and sexual exploitation.
  
  First introduced in 2022, the legislation would also require tools that would give parents greater ability to monitor their children鈥檚鈥� online activities and mandate tech companies enable their most restrictive privacy settings for their youngest users by default. 

• The Children and Teens鈥� Online Privacy Protection Act, also known as COPPA 2.0, amends a 1998 law that requires tech companies receive parental consent before collecting data about children under 13 years old. COPPA 2.0 would extend existing requirements to children under 16, ban targeted advertising for children and require tech companies to delete data collected about children upon parental request. 

• The Kids Off Social Media Act, introduced last week by Cruz and Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, would prohibit children under 13 years old from creating social media accounts and restrict tech companies from using algorithms to serve content to children under 17. It would also require schools that receive federal internet connectivity funding to block students鈥� access to social media sites on campus networks. 

The bill鈥檚 provisions have faced widespread pushback from digital rights and privacy advocates, including the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, which called it an unconstitutional infringement that 鈥渞eplaces parents鈥� choices about what their children can do online with a government-mandated prohibition.鈥澛�

On Tuesday, TikTok and its Chinese parent company that bans the popular social media app in the U.S. unless it sells the platform to an approved buyer, accusing the government of stifling free speech and unfairly singling it out based on unfounded accusations it poses a national security threat.

In March, 鈥� including Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Utah 鈥� to impose new parental consent requirements for children to create social media accounts. The Georgia law also bans social media use on school devices and creates age verification requirements for porn websites.

Aliya Bhatia, a policy analyst at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, said that each bill now included in the FAA reauthorization act has been the subject of debate and opposition. Including them in unrelated, must-pass legislation with a short deadline, she said, 鈥渦ndermines the active conversations that are happening鈥� about the bills, which she said are 鈥渏ust not ready for prime time.鈥�

The Kids Online Safety Act, which has the bipartisan , is endorsed by a host of , including the American Psychological Association, Common Sense Media and the American Academy of Pediatrics, who argue the rules could protect youth from the corrosive effects of social media. 

At the same time, the legislation, which has differing House and Senate versions, has also received and those representing LGBTQ+ students. The groups argue the bill amounts to government censorship with a likely disparate impact on LGBTQ+ youth and students of color. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has endorsed the legislation as a way to restrict youth access to LGBTQ+ content, that 鈥渒eeping trans content away from children is protecting kids.鈥� 

Privacy advocates have warned the legislation could result in age-verification requirements across the internet that could require online users of all ages to provide identifying information to web platforms. 

Meanwhile, social media鈥檚 effects on youth mental well-being remain the subject of research and debate. In last year, the American Psychological Association noted that while social media use 鈥渋s not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people,鈥� the platforms should not surface to their young users content that encourages them to engage in risky behaviors or is discriminatory. 

In , Surgeon General Vivek Murthy noted that social media use is nearly universal among young people, with more than a third of teens saying they use the apps 鈥渁lmost constantly.鈥� While its impact on youth mental health isn鈥檛 fully understood, Murphy said, emerging research suggests that its use can be harmful 鈥� perpetuating a national youth mental health crisis 鈥渢hat we must urgently address.鈥� 

The Kids off Social Media Act, which would prohibit youth access to sites like Instagram, is that requires schools and libraries to monitor and filter youth internet use as a condition of receiving federal E-Rate internet connectivity funding. In response, schools nationwide have adopted digital surveillance tools that use algorithms to sift through billions of student communications to identify problematic online behaviors.

Meanwhile, a recent found that web filters regularly used in schools do more than keep kids from goofing off in class. They also routinely limit students鈥� access to homework materials, educationally appropriate information about sexual and reproductive health and resources designed to prevent youth suicides. 

For years, privacy advocates have called on the Federal Communications Commission to clarify how the rules apply to the modern internet and have argued that schools鈥� tech-driven monitoring efforts go far beyond their original intent. 

When the law went into effect in 2001, monitoring 鈥渜uite literally meant looking over a kid鈥檚 shoulder as they used the computer,鈥� said Kristin Woelfel, a policy counsel of the Center for Democracy and Technology, but in 2024 student monitoring has become 鈥渁 very specific term that now means really pervasive and technical surveillance.鈥� 

of students, parents and teachers last year, the nonprofit found a majority supported digital activity monitoring in schools yet nearly three-quarters of youth said that filtering and blocking technology made it more difficult to complete some homework, a challenge reported more often among LGBTQ+ students, and that the tools routinely led to disciplinary actions and police involvement. 

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 work as people think they do,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat, coupled with data that shows it鈥檚 actually detrimental to students, indicates even more that this is not the right path forward.鈥� 

In a letter to lawmakers last week, a coalition of education nonprofits including the American Library Association and the Consortium for School Networking expressed concern about attaching social media limitations to E-Rate funding, which schools rely on to facilitate learning. 

鈥淪chools and libraries will face delays or denials of E-rate funding due to allegations of non-compliance,鈥� the groups wrote, arguing that it would give federal authorities control over social media policies that should be left to local officials. 鈥淭he bill鈥檚 provisions seem to suggest that technology-driven learning models are always harmful, even when carefully crafted to promote educational purposes. In fact, there are several social media uses that can be beneficial for education and learning.鈥�

In a announcing the legislation, Schatz offered the opposite perspective.

鈥淭here is no good reason for a nine-year-old to be on Instagram or TikTok,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here just isn鈥檛. The growing evidence is clear: social media is making kids more depressed, more anxious, and more suicidal.鈥�

In justifying the legislation, Schatz cites reporting by the psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, who argues in his new book that young people 鈥� and girls, in particular 鈥� face a 鈥渢idal wave鈥� of anguish that can be traced back to the rise of smartphones. 

Haidt鈥檚 characterization of tech鈥檚 role in youth well-being has , including by developmental psychologist Candice Odgers, who argued in that claims 鈥渢hat digital technologies are rewiring our children鈥檚 brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science.鈥� 

Among the evidence is on the well-being of nearly 1 million people ages 13 to 34 and 35 and over as it was being adopted in 72 countries and found 鈥渘o evidence suggesting that the global penetration of social media is associated with widespread psychological harm.鈥�

A high school student, her mother and mental health professionals from Emergence Health Network gathered on Thursday for a roundtable hosted by El Paso Matters.

More than 50 people attended the event at the El Paso Community College Administrative Services Center, ending with a question-and-answer session with the audience. The dialogue was the first in a series of events El Paso Matters is hosting this year that focus on different topics affecting the community.

Alice Cruz, a senior at Austin High School, said she began to seek help for her mental illness when she was 16 years old and a combination of therapy, psychology and psychiatry helped her get to where she is today.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like any other type of illness you鈥檙e going to have,鈥� Cruz said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e gonna have to take medication for it or you鈥檙e gonna have to go through therapy to recover from it.鈥�

In a survey of 3,000 students across multiple high schools in three El Paso-area school districts, students said they wanted to learn how to cope with anxiety, said Krista Wingate, chief of child and adolescent services at Emergence Health Network. The second top response was about improving self-esteem.

Here are five highlights from the conference.

Signs my child is struggling with mental health

Gicela Lopez said she noticed changes in her daughter Alice Cruz鈥檚 behavior. Cruz slept and cried more than usual. She isolated herself in her bedroom and was no longer interested in playing soccer, socializing or eating. Cruz reassured her mother she was OK, but once Lopez noticed Cruz was cutting herself, she knew Cruz was not OK.

鈥淚 knew that something was wrong because I love to eat, honestly, and I was not eating at all,鈥� Cruz said. 鈥淢y mom gave me pasta or my favorite foods and I totally just threw them aside.鈥�

While her mental health didn鈥檛 affect her grades, she did stop communicating with her teachers and friends, Cruz said.

In order to notice these changes in your kid鈥檚 life, you have to know your kid and have consistent conversations with them, Wingate said. This lays the groundwork for having tough conversations later.

How to get my child to open up to me

Wingate said it鈥檚 important for parents and caregivers to take a step back and understand mental illness is not directly caused by something they did.

Parents should make sure they鈥檙e in the right headspace before they talk to their child about mental health issues, especially when it鈥檚 a topic that feels uncomfortable or unnatural, Wingate said. Avoid having tough conversations when you鈥檙e feeling burnt out because it may be harder to pay attention to the child, she said.

Wingate recommended the 鈥淟UV鈥� approach: listen with intention, understand and try to put yourself in your child鈥檚 shoes, validate what they鈥檙e feeling. Approach the conversation with an open mind, rather than anger, and take a second to pause and be present, she said.

Lopez said she made it clear to her daughter that they would go through the mental health journey together. Your child may not want to talk to you at first, so it鈥檚 important to establish trust, Cruz added.

鈥淵ou have to work and grow that trust, that relationship, to be able to have those difficult conversations,鈥� said Julie Tirrell, an Emergence Health therapist at Austin High School.

That means showing a level of respect for your child and their story, Tirrell said.

Rather than demanding that a therapist talk to you about your child 鈥� which may appear threatening in front of your child 鈥� start by asking your teen about what they talk about in therapy, Wingate said. A parent can ask their child for permission to sit in during the first 15 minutes of therapy, or have a collaborative conversation about what topics to discuss in the next family session.

Approaching my child about social media usage

Cruz said being on social media had a complicated effect on her mental health.

鈥淚 saw people that were happy when I was sad, that were having the best time of their lives traveling while I was in my room crying, so it definitely did influence me a lot,鈥� Cruz said.

Tirrell said social media can be problematic for the developing mind, especially because 鈥減eople only post what they want you to see.鈥� This can lead to low self esteem as teens compare themselves to others. It鈥檚 hard for young people to understand what鈥檚 on social media 鈥� from filtered photos or selective angles 鈥� may not reflect reality, Tirrell said.

Wingate said the unpopular opinion is to restrict internet time, such as using wifi-blocking apps that limit screen time. This could also look like not letting children sleep with their tablet, cell phone or school laptop, which prevents them from staying up late scrolling through social media. Talk to your child about why you want to limit their social media time, she said.

Low-cost or free mental health services available in El Paso

鈥淵our brain is one of the most important organs that we have,鈥� Tirrell said. 鈥淪eeking help doesn鈥檛 need to be looked at in a negative way at all. It should be handled just like cardiac disease.鈥�

Two organizations in El Paso offer .

Emergence Health Network, a local agency that provides mental health services, offers on-campus therapy and case management in at least 10 different schools in El Paso County. Along with therapy, the organization provides case management and informal youth mentorship. 

Project Vida, a nonprofit in El Paso, offers on-campus services in at least 21 schools across El Paso and Hudspeth counties. Each mental health team from Project Vida includes a licensed professional counselor or licensed clinical social worker, who rotate between two campuses. Availability tends to fill up within the first three months of the school year, although clinicians can take new students in the middle of the school year if their clients finish their treatment plan early.

At the Ysleta Independent School District, students, staff and their families can access free treatment for mental health or substance abuse through , which connects people to off-campus providers.

Borderland Rainbow Center offers , group therapy and peer support groups. Individual therapy is available on a sliding scale based on income.

offers programs in English and Spanish for parents and caregivers of children and adolescents who are diagnosed or not yet diagnosed with a mental health condition. 

Options besides therapy

There is a shortage of counselors and therapists in El Paso, but there are other services that can be beneficial in different ways from therapy, Wingate said.

Emergence Health Network offers caseworker services. A caseworker with a degree in psychology can provide psychological education to both parent and child. Social workers are overlooked, but they can help people learn coping skills and lay the groundwork for addressing mental health issues before jumping into therapy, she said.

Disclosure: Emergence Health Network, El Paso Community College and the Socorro Independent School District partnered with El Paso Matters to sponsor the mental health forum. Sponsors are not involved in the editorial content of El Paso Matters. The newsroom鈥檚 policy on editorial independence can be found .

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., was the latest act in a bipartisan effort to bolster federal regulations on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok amid a growing chorus of parents and adolescent mental health experts warning the services have harmed youth well-being and, in some cases, pushed them to suicide. 

In an unprecedented moment, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at the urging of Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, stood up and turned around to face the audience, apologizing to the parents in attendance who said their children were damaged 鈥� and in some cases, died 鈥� because of his company鈥檚 algorithms. 

“I鈥檓 sorry for everything you鈥檝e all gone through,” said Zuckerberg, whose company owns Facebook and Instagram. “It鈥檚 terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”

Senators argued the companies 鈥� and tech executives themselves 鈥� should be held legally responsible for instances of abuse and exploitation under tougher regulations that would limit children鈥檚 access to social media platforms and restrict their exposure to harmful content.

鈥淵our platforms really suck at policing themselves,鈥� Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, told Zuckerberg and the CEOs of X, TikTok, Discord and Snap, who were summoned to testify. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which allows social media platforms to moderate content as they see fit and generally provides immunity from liability for user-generated posts, has routinely shielded tech companies from accountability. As youth harms persist, he said those legal protections are 鈥渁 very significant part of that problem.鈥� 

Whitehouse pointed to a lawsuit against X, formerly Twitter, that was filed by two men who claimed a sex trafficker manipulated them into sharing sexually explicit videos of themselves over Snapchat when they were just 13 years old. Links to the videos appeared on Twitter years later, but the company allegedly refused to take action until after they were contacted by a Department of Homeland Security agent and the posts had generated more than 160,000 views. The by the Ninth Circuit, which cited Section 230.聽

鈥淭hat’s a pretty foul set of facts,鈥� Whitehouse said. 鈥淭here is nothing about that set of facts that tells me Section 230 performed any public service in that regard.鈥�

In an opening statement, Democratic committee chair, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, offered a chilling description of the harms inflicted on young people by each of the social media platforms represented at the hearing. In addition to Zuckerberg, executives who testified were X CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron.

鈥淒iscord has been used to groom, abduct and abuse children,鈥� Durbin said. 鈥淢eta鈥檚 Instagram helped connect and promote a network of pedophiles. Snapchat鈥檚 disappearing messages have been co-opted by criminals who financially extort young victims. TikTok has become a, quote, 鈥榩latform of choice’ for predators to access, engage and groom children for abuse. And the prevalance of [child sexual abuse material] on X has grown as the company has gutted its trust and safety workforce.鈥� 

Citron testified that Discord has 鈥渁 zero tolerance policy鈥� for content that features sexual exploitation and that it uses filters to scan and block such materials from its service. 

鈥淛ust like all technology and tools, there are people who exploit and abuse our platforms for immoral and illegal purposes,鈥� Citron said. 鈥淎ll of us here on the panel today, and throughout the tech industry, have a solemn and urgent responsibility to ensure that everyone who uses our platforms is protected from these criminals both online and off.鈥� 

Lawmakers have introduced a slate of regulatory bills that have gained bipartisan traction but have failed to become law. Among them is the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require social media companies and other online services to take 鈥渞easonable measures鈥� to protect children from cyberbullying, sexual exploitation and materials that promote self-harm. It would also mandate strict privacy settings when teens use the online services. Other proposals would to report suspected drug activity to the police 鈥� some parents said their children overdosed and died after buying drugs on the platforms 鈥� and a bill that would hold them accountable for hosting child sexual abuse materials. 

In their testimonies, each of the tech executives said they have taken steps to protect children who use their services, including features that restrict certain types of content, limit screen time and curtail the people they鈥檙e allowed to communicate with. But they also sought to distance their services from harms in a bid to stave off regulations. 

鈥淲ith so much of our lives spent on mobile devices and social media, it鈥檚 important to look into the effects on teen mental health and well-being,鈥� Zuckerberg said. 鈥淚 take this very seriously. Mental health is a complex issue, and the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes.鈥� 

Zuckerberg by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which concluded there is a lack of evidence to confirm that social media causes changes in adolescent well-being at the population level and that the services could carry both benefits and harms for young people. While social media websites can expose children to online harassment and fringe ideas, researchers noted, the services can be used by young people to foster community. 

In October, 42 state attorneys general , alleging that the social media giant knowingly and purposely designed tools to addict children to its services. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warning that social media sites pose a 鈥減rofound risk of harm鈥� to youth mental health, stating that the tools should come with warning labels. Among evidence of the harms is which found that Instagram led to body-image issues among teenage girls and that many of its young users blamed the platform for increases in anxiety and depression. 

Republican lawmakers devoted a significant amount of time during the hearing to criticizing TikTok for its ties to the Chinese government, calling out the app for collecting data about U.S. citizens, including in an effort to surveil American journalists. The Justice Department is reportedly investigating allegations that ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, used the app to surveil several American journalists who report on the tech industry. 

In response, Chew said the company launched an initiative 鈥� dubbed 鈥淧roject Texas鈥� 鈥� to prevent its Chinese employees from accessing personal data about U.S. citizens. But employees claim the company has . 

YouTube and TikTok are by far the platforms where teens spend the most hours per day, according to a 2023 Gallup survey although Neal Mohan, the CEO of Google-owned YouTube, was not called in to testify.

Mainstream social media platforms have also been exploited for domestic online extremism. Earlier this month, for example, a teenager accused of carrying out a mass shooting at his Iowa high school reportedly maintained an active presence on Discord and, shortly before the rampage, commented in a channel dedicated to such attacks that he was 鈥済earing up鈥� for the mayhem. Just minutes before the shooting, the suspect appeared to capture a video inside a school bathroom and uploaded it to TikTok. 

Josh Golin, the executive director of Fairplay, a nonprofit devoted to bolstering online child protections, blasted the tech executives鈥� testimony for being little more than 鈥渆vasions and deflections.鈥� 

鈥淚f Congress really cares about the families who packed the hearing today holding pictures of their children lost to social media harms, they will move the Kids Online Safety Act,鈥� Golin said in a statement. 鈥淧ointed questions and sound bites won鈥檛 save lives, but KOSA will.鈥� 

The safety act, known as KOSA, has faced pushback from civil rights advocates on First Amendment grounds, arguing the proposal could be used to censor certain content and . Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee and KOSA co-author, said last fall the rules are important to protect 鈥渕inor children from the transgender in this culture鈥� and cited the legislation as a way to shield children from 鈥渂eing indoctrinated鈥� online. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, endorsed the legislation, that 鈥渒eeping trans content away from children is protecting kids.鈥� 

Snap鈥檚 Evan Spiegel and X鈥檚 Linda Yaccarino both agreed to support the Kids Online Safety Act.

Aliya Bhatia, a policy analyst with the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, said that although lawmakers made clear their intention to act, their directives could end up doing more harm than good. She said the platforms serve as 鈥減eer-to-peer learning and community networks鈥� where young people can access information about reproductive health and other important topics that they might not feel comfortable receiving from adults in their lives. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that this is a really tricky issue, it鈥檚 really difficult for the government and companies to decide what is harmful for young people,鈥� Bhatia said. 鈥淲hat one young person finds helpful online, another might find harmful.鈥�

South Carolina’s Sen. Lindsey Graham, the committee’s ranking Republican, said that social media companies can鈥檛 be trusted to keep kids safe online and that lawmakers have run out of patience.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e waiting on these guys to solve the problem,鈥� he said, 鈥渨e鈥檙e going to die waiting.鈥� 

鈥淎s human beings we need social support, we need reassurance, and algorithms now are taking advantage of those needs and keeping us online and engaged with content even when it doesn鈥檛 feel good,” Erickson-Schroth said in an interview with 蜜桃影视.

Youth suicide rates have escalated over the last decade, making it the second leading cause of death among teens and young adults. But suicide rates are starkly different among different populations, a reality brought into full view in , a nonprofit focused on youth suicide prevention. And the harms of social media 鈥� the subject of a bipartisan push to regulate tech company algorithms and a bevy of lawsuits filed by school districts and states 鈥� is just one piece of the crisis.

But Erickson-Schroth, JED鈥檚 chief medical officer, has observed one promising trend: Schools are more interested than ever, she said, in addressing students鈥� mental health needs.聽

蜜桃影视 caught up with Erickson-Schroth, whose work places a particular emphasis on LGTBQ+ mental health, to gain insight into the factors driving the youth suicide crisis, the conditions that put some groups of students at heightened risk and strategies that educators and policymakers can use to keep kids safe. 

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Among all youth, what are the primary factors that you see having contributed to the increase in the youth suicide rate over the last decade? 

The COVID pandemic certainly played a role. Globally, rates of childhood depression and anxiety doubled during the pandemic. In my own practice, working with LGBTQ+ young people, I could see how the pandemic was affecting them. Many young people were becoming more anxious because of the social isolation and having trouble reengaging in social situations. Many of them missed important milestones like graduation, many young people lost people in their lives.

But I don’t think it’s the whole story. Youth mental health issues and suicide rates have been increasing for the last decade at least and the COVID pandemic doesn鈥檛 explain that.

I think one of the biggest drivers is this increasing digital connection, when the internet met the phone, and we can see kind of around when that happened. If you look at studies of what percentage of Americans had smartphones at different times, in 2011 around 35% of people [had them] and now we’re up to about 85%. So almost everyone in the United States has a computer in their pocket.

That鈥檚 really different than the worlds that we grew up in in prior generations. There are a lot of positives and negatives to that. There are positives in building community and connections, especially for young people who have a hard time finding that in person.

But also it’s changed their lives completely in some negative ways. We’re constantly exposed to news, some of it really difficult news: wars around the world, climate change, racial violence, anti-LGBTQ legislation, those kinds of things. There’s cyberbullying, there are all of these chances for social comparisons, there鈥檚 this hijacking of reward systems. 

As human beings we need social support, we need reassurance, and algorithms now are taking advantage of those needs and keeping us online and engaged with content even when it doesn鈥檛 feel good. 

So all of that is adding up to a really different world that young people are living in where they’re increasingly lonely and disconnected socially.

Let鈥檚 turn to the pandemic. The data show that youth suicides reached a high in 2021 and leveled off a bit in 2022. What does this tell us about the pandemic鈥檚 effects on the youth suicide rate and how has the situation changed now that we鈥檙e no longer in lockdown? 

It鈥檚 important to say that youth suicide rates have been increasing for a long time, long before the pandemic. 

So we did see youth suicide rates rise during the pandemic. There was a study that looked at the second half of 2020, and there was a higher than expected rate of suicide for young people. It was particularly (true) among some groups, and that鈥檚 including Black youth. That likely had to deal with specific events that were occurring during the pandemic within those communities. 

Black youth disproportionately lost members of their families and communities to COVID. The pandemic also coincided with these highly publicized incidents of racial violence. So, the pandemic really did have an effect on young people, but the pandemic isn鈥檛 the whole story. 

If we鈥檙e talking about the increase from 2020 to 鈥�21 and then the decrease from 2021 to 2022, yes, based on we do see that there was an 18% drop in suicides for young people 10 to 24 and then a 9% drop for young people 15 to 24. The pandemic might have added to the numbers for 2021 and coming out of the pandemic might have improved those numbers. 

But there were a lot of other factors that were contributing. I think one is that we’re paying more attention to mental health than we were in the past. We can see it in the numbers. Large donors gave more money towards mental health in 2022 than in any other year over the past decade.

At JED, we work with schools and we鈥檙e seeing more schools interested in making mental health a priority than we鈥檝e ever seen before. 

LGBTQ+ students have long experienced higher suicide rates than their straight and cisgender peers. What do the data show about the current political climate鈥檚 effects on their well-being and suicide risk? 

There’s good research coming out of The Trevor Project. They do a survey every year that looks at LGBTQ+ young people鈥檚 experiences and one of the questions that they always ask is about how the political climate is affecting them. Based on their data, it looks like it鈥檚 affecting them quite a bit. 

Young people who are hearing about anti-LGBTQ+ legislation or movements against their rights are having a more difficult time with their mental health, which makes sense. It鈥檚 important that, in our conversations about this, we make sure that people know it鈥檚 not about someone鈥檚 gender or someone鈥檚 sexuality. That鈥檚 not the reason that they鈥檙e having mental health issues. It鈥檚 about the way that our society reacts to young people who are different. 

Black youth have experienced the fastest increase in suicide rates, with that rate nearly doubling in just the last decade. What do the data tell us about what might be at play here within the last decade in particular? 

It’s always been really hard to be a Black young person in America, so what makes the recent decade different? I think what makes it different is, again, this constant digital connection. 

The water that you swim in is this digital world and you have to spend time in this world because it gives you so many positives. It connects youth of color to other youth of color, who may be in other areas, so they can seek out community. It helps them connect with adults who are going to be supportive of them. But it also involves interacting with racist comments online, it involves seeing these really highly publicized incidents of racial violence. Young people are watching those videos and seeing what鈥檚 happening. They鈥檙e seeing movements for change, but they鈥檙e also seeing pushes back against those.

I鈥檓 curious about the rural-urban divide. Young people in rural areas are far more likely than their urban counterparts to die by suicide. What particular risk factors do rural teens face and what prevention methods might work best for them in particular?

I think young people in rural areas are in a unique position right now. There are a lot of positive benefits to living in rural areas. Young people getting out in nature and having close social ties. But at the same time, rural communities can be places where young people have less access to some of the things that they need. If they are in a particular group, there might not be as many people like them in that area.

It鈥檚 hard to connect to providers if you鈥檙e looking for mental health support because rural communities have lower rates of insurance and they have provider shortages. There鈥檚 also a lot of stigma around mental health in rural areas and it depends on the area, of course, from one place to another. 

A really important one to talk about is access to firearms. It鈥檚 really common for young people in rural areas to have access to firearms. In rural areas, young people are twice as likely to die by suicide as those in larger metro areas. And they have easier access to firearms. 

We have a lot of work to do in terms of expanding access to mental health care and making sure that young people can access mental health care in school. I was on a panel with a middle school and a high school principal and both of them were in rural areas. 

And one of the things that they talked about was that young people in rural areas may not want to seek out mental health help from a clinic or a hospital because that may put them at risk of being identified as someone who’s getting mental health care. If you park your car outside of a clinic in a rural area, everyone else in your community knows what you鈥檙e doing. If you get mental health help in school from a school counselor, that鈥檚 just a regular part of the day that lots of young people engage with.

What immediate, actionable steps can parents and educators take to help prevent this problem from getting worse?

We can talk about immediately actionable things that we know are going to make a difference in the short term and then we can talk about longer-term solutions. In the short term, one of those things is, you know, how are we going to approach firearms? 

More than half of young people who die by suicide use firearms and we know that firearms are readily accessible to many young people in their homes: 4.6 million children live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm.

How do we approach that? That鈥檚 through community work, that鈥檚 through making sure that gun owner groups, gun retailers and families are aware of the risks, that young people are turning to firearms when they鈥檙e thinking about suicide. Suicidal crises are often shortlived. Many people who attempt suicide, there鈥檚 very little time between when they first think about that suicide attempt and when they act upon it, so if we can reduce their access to lethal means in that moment, we can get them through the crisis and make sure that they have the support that they need, that they鈥檙e safe, that they have someone that they can talk to. 

So that鈥檚 one of the clearest actions we can take. 

How about policymakers? What key policy changes would you like to see, that you believe would have the largest impact on reducing young people鈥檚鈥� risk for suicide? There are a lot of ongoing legislative efforts to limit children鈥檚 access to social media as a way to improve their mental health. 

It’s really, really important that legislators and the government are involved in this issue. Number one, we have to establish a minimum set of safety standards for young people online. We have to have a regulatory commission that oversees that, we have to make sure that we have regulations for companies so that they don’t have to govern themselves.

Those kinds of things would include mandating that they collaborate with technology companies and independent research teams coming together to make sure that people outside of the companies are looking at the data ensuring that the algorithms are not negatively affecting young people’s mental health.

I think we have to take on advertising to young people. You know, what type of advertising is permitted at what ages, what the delivery looks like. We have to require that social media companies build in experts like psychologists to advocate for young people’s well-being and know what’s going on in the algorithms.

We have to make sure that we can accurately detect age, when young people are using these platforms. Those are all things that the government should be regulating. 

There are things social media companies can do, too. They should be aggressively moderating harmful content. They should be making their data available to researchers and being transparent about their algorithms, they should be building in ways for young people to control their experiences online to be able to choose the kinds of things that they’re going to see.

An Ohio House bill to notify parents of any content in state schools that may contain 鈥渟exuality鈥� was introduced before an Ohio Senate committee earlier this month.

Critics likened the bill to Florida鈥檚 鈥�, which was implemented in 2022 and bars classroom discussion for some grade levels on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Republican co-sponsors state Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, and Rep. Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, brought the bill before the Senate Education Committee.

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鈥淭his is a common sense bill that simply acknowledges the fundamental role that parents play in the life of their children,鈥� Swearingen told the committee. 鈥淚t is statistically undeniable that when parents are involved in their kids鈥� lives, kids succeed.鈥�

During its run through the House, the bill was opposed by a variety of youth advocacy groups, including the Kaleidoscope Youth Center, the Children鈥檚 Defense Fund-Ohio and the Trevor Project, along with some school districts, the ACLU of Ohio, the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio School Counselor Association.

The groups took issue with House Bill 8鈥檚 language, which requires schools to notify parents and allows parents to remove students from classes based on the 鈥渟exuality content鈥� of those classes, and amendments made that LGBTQ advocates said made topics related to the LGBTQ community 鈥減erhaps inappropriate for the classroom,鈥� according to Equality Ohio鈥檚 then-spokesperson Kathryn Poe, during the House committee process.

Mallory Golski, civic engagement and advocacy manager at Kaleidoscope Youth Center said calling the content 鈥渟exuality content,鈥� the bill is 鈥渢argeting LGBTQIA+ youth and even something as simple as a story that they might be reading in English class, if there is a queer character in that story, that can be flagged as sexuality content.鈥�

In the Dec. 5 committee hearing before the Senate Education Committee, Carruthers, however, likened the regulations under the bill to the process that would take place if a child was hurt in the park and an ambulance was called.

鈥淲ho do they call to find out your child鈥檚 medical history or allergic reactions to medications?鈥� Carruthers posed to the committee. 鈥淪omehow, I don鈥檛 believe they would call the school to find out this information.鈥�

Swearingen said the bill 鈥減rotects a parent鈥檚 ability to direct their child鈥檚 physical and mental health.鈥� To do so, the school districts are 鈥減rohibited from keeping changes in the health of the student from their parents, and the school district is also prohibited from encouraging the student to hide these issues from their parents,鈥� he told the committee.

That is part of the problem youth advocacy and education groups have with the bill, saying that opens the door for children to be 鈥渙uted鈥� for their gender identity or sexual orientation, when such information might put them at risk in certain households.

At the committee hearing, the bill received revisions through a substitute bill, which made changes 鈥減er the revised federal code,鈥� according to Carruthers. She said the sponsors had 鈥渂een working very closely鈥� with committee chair state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, on the sub bill.

The bill included definitions for the terms 鈥渁ge-appropriate鈥� and 鈥渄evelopmentally appropriate,鈥� which were modeled after existing federal definitions. Federal law uses those definitions for 鈥渁ctivities or items that are generally accepted as suitable for children of the same chronological age or maturity鈥� or 鈥渢ypical for an age or age group,鈥� according to state Sen. Sandra O鈥橞rien, R-Ashtabula, who presented the substitute bill to the committee.

The substitute bill will continue through the hearing process in the education committee before moving on to a vote of the full senate.

The bill passed the House with a vote of 65-29 in June.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David DeWitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on and .

Kesar Gaba, a rising sophomore at Queens College, was in high school when the pandemic hit. 

鈥淎ll I saw for two years was black screens on Zoom. It affected my mental health, it affected my relationships within my family, and it really overall affected the way I see the world.鈥� 

Arshia Papari, a rising freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, had a slightly different attitude toward online schooling compared to Kesar. 

鈥淲hat the pandemic did for me was that it really opened me up to a new opportunity in schooling, but it also took away the ability for me to do any sort of in-person connections and have a real high school experience. But I think it鈥檚 been a trade-off between the experiences you have during high school and also the convenience of online schooling.鈥�

Many students had similar experiences during the pandemic. Whether they enjoyed online schooling or not, these stories have been published dozens of times in varying news outlets and reflected in student surveys. But older students in particular had less time to catch up before leaving the school system, creating concerns as to whether they had ample support emerging from the pandemic. 

We at CRPE were interested in learning about these students鈥� current hopes, fears, and ideas for how to strengthen the U.S. education system. To that end, we spoke with 10 older youth鈥� that is, high schoolers nearing graduation or students who have already graduated鈥攖o get their perspective on the data in our report as well as on life as an American teenager, their take on rising mental illness rates among peers their age, and what it would take to change the current education system.

Why the kids are not all right

鈥淚f the world around you is giving you stimuli that the world is falling apart or the world鈥檚 on fire, and that repeats every day on TikTok or on YouTube … I think that鈥檚 what鈥檚 leading to the [rising mental health problems] trend of going up, up, up, and up.鈥� 鈥揂rshia Papari, rising freshman, The University of Texas at Austin

By now, it is common knowledge that students鈥� mental illness rates are, and have been, worsening. The pandemic is often blamed. In reality, the pandemic is just part of a bigger picture. Students had concerns around their well-being and safety鈥攂oth inside and outside of schools鈥攍ong before Covid-19. The pandemic just created an opportunity to bring these issues to light.

鈥淚 feel like the pandemic gave us this gateway to just talk about [feelings of helplessness and depression] in a more normalized setting. This has been a problem for some time, but I don鈥檛 think that it鈥檚 just because the pandemic happened.鈥� 鈥揂bigail Singh, rising freshman, Bennington College, Vermont

Students had a lot to say about what they believe is contributing to these rising trends. 

First and foremost, these students are concerned about their safety and security in schools, physically and emotionally. They named political and cultural tensions 鈥� Title IX scandals, bans on Pride flags, anti-trans legislation, and reckless gun violence, among others 鈥� as harmful to their wellbeing. Even if these events were not happening in their schools or didn鈥檛 affect them directly, these issues still impact the mental health of the COVID generation. 

Lazuli Clark, a transgender female student, remarked on how difficult it can be to focus on school when some policymakers are passing laws against her identity.

鈥淕oing to school is the least of people鈥檚 concerns at this point for a lot of people. There are days where I鈥檓 like, oh yeah, I have to worry about my AP U.S. history project and yesterday another state basically made it so that I can never exist in that state. And it鈥檚 like, how鈥檚 anyone supposed to think about anything at all when there鈥檚 all of that going on? Even if you鈥檙e not directly impacted by it. Most people in my generation know somebody who鈥檚 impacted in one way or the other.鈥�

Other students felt vulnerable in their own communities. Liv Birnstad, a recent graduate from a public charter school in Washington, D.C., explained how school resource officers (SROs) were meant to be replaced with mental health professionals in school buildings:

鈥淏ut what ended up happening is they took [SROs] away and then didn鈥檛 replace them [with mental health professionals]. And so now they鈥檙e putting [SROs] back into schools because they thought that the problem was that we didn鈥檛 have SROs. But the real problem is that we didn鈥檛 have inter-community support. At my school we have school resource officers, but we also have a lot of police. And so a lot of students feel really uncomfortable receiving support at school because it feels like a really kind of carceral space.鈥�

Liv is not alone. Arivumani Srivastava, who attended a high school in rural Kentucky, described a similar initiative in his state as a 鈥済ive-and-take鈥� bill. After the Marshall County High School shooting, the bill mandated a mental health professional be present in schools, but also required a certain number of police officers on campuses. Similarly, Abigail Singh, a graduate of a charter school in Brooklyn, New York, described how it felt to go through scanners at school meant to check for weapons: 鈥淚t just makes us all feel villainized.鈥�

The students made it clear that in-school mental health supports are not enough to improve their well-being. First, they need to feel safe enough to use these supports.

鈥淚f students aren鈥檛 able to freely explore themselves in a safe and supported way in schools, then all they鈥檙e doing is looking at a future where they鈥檒l have less guidance and probably equal, if not more scrutiny. And so it makes sense for me that they would be hopeless or sad.鈥� 鈥揓aylen Adams, rising freshman, Columbia University, New York

鈥淚 feel like mental health is something that we鈥檙e still growing in society. We鈥檙e advocating on [it] because it is a really big issue that students face. And if it鈥檚 not tackled, it just keeps becoming an issue and it could lead to more severe factors on a student鈥檚 life. It鈥檚 just something that needs to continue to be touched upon in a school setting.鈥� 鈥揂lejandro Blanco, rising sophomore, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign

Social media: A double-edged sword

We cannot underestimate the influence social media platforms and apps have on youth. For instance, Georgia鈥檚 Brady Phan benefited from school closures. He used the free time during lockdown to reflect on his goals and double down on his academic aspirations. But he also saw how school closures adversely affected many of his peers, especially those who were drawn to influential people on social media.

鈥淎 lot of these entrepreneurs [on social media] are saying that you should not go to college, that there鈥檚 a lot of easier ways to make money. And especially during the pandemic where they鈥檙e the most vulnerable鈥搕hat鈥檚 where I see them influence [youth] a lot. And that would maybe change [my peers鈥橾 minds about pursuing or excelling in an academic career.鈥� 鈥揃rady Phan, rising senior, DeKalb County School District, Georgia

鈥淲e saw a lot more people who were more radicalized [during the pandemic]. They鈥檇 fallen down certain rabbit holes because they were just like locked up on their own. And they also lost a lot of empathy because, well, we gain empathy by talking to people who are different from us. But if you鈥檙e just alone for a year, a year and a half, two years, then you do tend to lose that sense of compassion for people who are different than you.鈥� 鈥揗aya Murali, rising senior, Lewisville Independent School District, Texas

While there is ample evidence of the harmful effects of social media, including the spread of misinformation, the students also highlighted the opportunities these platforms provide. Abigail Singh, for example, has an interest in social justice and wants to pursue a career in journalism. In her eyes, social media is a powerful tool for advocacy.

鈥淏eing someone with so many intersectional identities, it鈥檚 hard to find a community where I feel represented and exist. And so social media is definitely somewhere where I feel like I鈥檝e been given the platform to help other students like me.鈥� 鈥揂bigail Singh, rising freshman, Bennington College, Vermont

Liv sees a similar opportunity. As someone who attended a small school and identifies as Jewish and queer, she praised social media for helping connect her to like-minded peers. It is a 鈥渞eminder that there鈥檚 life outside of [school] … social media can kind of help you find your niche group when you don鈥檛 have access at a school.鈥� 

While there is cause to be wary of harmful users who can influence youth negatively, the benefits social media bestows are also notable. For teenagers like Abigail, Liv, and others who use these platforms to connect to one another and find community where they may not otherwise have the opportunity to do so, social media can be enlightening.

鈥淚 definitely think that social media helps in addition to the ways it harms. It definitely is harmful and I don鈥檛 want to understate that, but I also really feel like that the way social media is reported about overshadows the good that it can do.鈥� 鈥揂rivumani Srivastava, rising sophomore, Pomona College, California

Ideas for the future of education

Although youth have serious concerns about deteriorating mental health and social conflicts, they are also optimistic about how schooling can be improved. They are especially intrigued about the potential of AI and peer mentoring.

Similar to social media, students acknowledge how AI can be harmful for those that rely too much on technology like ChatGPT. Rather than dwelling on these concerns, however, students were more excited to share the possibilities it can offer.

鈥淚 think the education system as a whole is concerned more about how [ChatGPT] can be used for cheating and not really seeing it for what it can be, which is a really powerful tool.鈥� 鈥揗aya Murali, rising senior, Lewisville Independent School District, Texas

鈥淚 hope that things like ChatGPT and text-to-speech [tools] can continue to advance in a way that provides more accessibility for people. As someone who is not neurotypical, a lot of times I do benefit from different approaches to how lessons are taught, and it can be a lot of work for a teacher to have to create multiple different ways for something to be taught. So if we can find a way for artificial intelligence to be used in terms of accessibility, it鈥檒l be a lot less work on the behalf of the teacher and the student.鈥� 鈥揕azuli Clark, rising senior, KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate, Massachusetts

Other students also commented on how they use ChatGPT to compare their own writing to it, or as a jumping-off point for assignments. But they warned that AI cannot be the end-all be-all. As one student put it, 鈥淵ou still need to know what you鈥檙e doing. You need to be able to think critically and be able to edit essays or whatever it鈥檚 generating for you.鈥�

Students also want schools to provide more mentoring support and help navigating college and career pathways.

鈥淸Having] a set structure in schools to just have one-on-one talks with each student: see where they鈥檙e at, see how they鈥檙e feeling, what they want to pursue. Just have that intensive nature to each student to make sure they鈥檙e feeling heard, they鈥檙e feeling shown attention. And I feel like that鈥檚 really helpful, especially in a high school setting where there鈥檚 a lot of kids and being heard goes a long way.鈥� 鈥揂lejandro Blanco, rising sophomore, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

When we asked students what they found to be most helpful in considering postsecondary options, nearly all of them mentioned talking with an older peer or adult. For instance, Jaylen will be attending Columbia University this fall on a full scholarship. But she was no expert at the college application process. Instead, she relied on help from various college readiness programs to research the application, financial aid, and negotiation processes. Brady, who wants to study computer science at Georgia Tech, has been getting advice about the admissions process from his football coach (an alumni) and his uncle (a current student).

Continuing the conversation

The students also spoke of the increasing external pressure they feel for their generation to attend college, rectify key issues like climate change, and generally 鈥渄o well.鈥� If we put expectations like these onto youth, it鈥檚 only fair that we also provide the necessary supports for them to succeed.

Bottom line: educators must listen to students now more than ever. As they are currently navigating the educational system, they have the best understanding of its strengths, and more importantly, what it still lacks. Older youth who were forced out of the education system during a global health crisis were especially vulnerable to its flaws. They deserve better. They want to be heard. And they expect adults to act on their advice.

鈥淚鈥檓 on the DC State Board of Education, and they were so excited to have student members of the board. My first term, we couldn鈥檛 get anything done. I鈥檇 ask [for help] at public meetings and instead of even saying no, they just would not respond. Everyone would just go silent for a minute and move on. I give 10 hours a week, I鈥檓 on two committees of the board, and they can鈥檛 even listen to me.鈥� 鈥揕iv Birnstad, rising freshman, Harvard University, Massachusetts

鈥淚t feels like a lot more people want to hear what [students] say, but even though they hear what we say, that doesn鈥檛 mean they take it into account at all. It really feels like they just said, 鈥極h we listened to the kids but they鈥檙e young, they鈥檙e stupid, they don鈥檛 know.鈥� So we鈥檒l just add it as an appendix to what we鈥檙e doing and then move on with what we think. And I guess that鈥檚 just really infuriating to me because I feel like I鈥檇 rather just not be listened to than to be tokenized.鈥� 鈥揂rivumani Srivastava, rising sophomore, Pomona College, California

See more from the Center on Reinventing Public Education and its .

LINCOLN 鈥� A Nebraska panel on civil rights continued diving into the effects of COVID-19 on K-12 education Wednesday with a focus on youth mental health.

This was the third public meeting of the Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is tasked with determining civil rights implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and possible recommendations to the national group. The advisory committee hosted two forums this summer, including a look into .

Jen Pollock of the Nebraska School Psychologists Association said there is a dramatic national workforce shortage, particularly in education. Still, teachers cannot be expected to be mental health experts.

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鈥淭hey are experts in the content, and that鈥檚 what we need them to be,鈥� Pollock said.

Schools could have a tiered system of support, however, which Pollock said includes building safe classroom environments for and positive relationships with students, reinforcing clear and high expectations and adopting rigorous course instruction.

鈥楾here鈥檚 never too many adults鈥�

Liesel Hogan, a licensed mental health practitioner who works in Educational Service Unit #3 with Pollock, said the impacts of shortages have direct student impacts. ESU #3 is , serving 18 school districts.

Schools require relationships, and trust and rapport among students and teachers are vital, Hogan added. If relationships don鈥檛 exist, students are less successful, and teachers can instead come to feel like 鈥済lorified babysitters,鈥� according to Hogan.

鈥淚 always say that there鈥檚 never too many adults who can love a student in order to get them back to where they need to be from a functioning standpoint,鈥� Hogan said.

The pandemic also led to more anxiety, more school absences and a fear of the unknown, with fewer students wanting to learn to drive or leave home for social interactions. Many students feel a lack of motivation, she said, because many activities were halted during the pandemic.

鈥淎n object in motion stays in motion,鈥� Hogan said.

Increase in mental, behavioral concerns

Corey Lieneman, assistant professor in the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Psychiatry, said that since COVID-19, there has been a 25% increase globally in anxiety and depression.

Nationwide, about 20% of youths ages 3-17 have at least one mental or behavioral health disorder, and suicide is the second leading cause of death in children ages 10-14, Lieneman said. The rate of suicide among children ages 12-17 more than doubled from 2008 to 2020.

Brenda Bassingthwaite, associate professor at UNMC鈥檚 Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation, said each year has become progressively harder to consult in school settings.

This is because as students鈥� needs go unaddressed, new skills are harder for them to develop, Bassingthwaite said, and students instead adopt maladaptive behaviors such as destroying items or climbing on tables to gain attention or access to other opportunities.

鈥淲hen we do not meet the needs of students early, the needs often grow and become more challenging to address,鈥� she added.

Workforce shortages can lead to closing classrooms. Omaha Public Schools transferred children with special education needs to different schools this year because of a at three buildings. While there may be no other options, Bassingthwaite said, there will still be an impact on students.

Information overload

There鈥檚 also information overload for adolescents, Lieneman said, whose brains are not yet developed to the point where they can absorb all the information presented to them.

For example, students could not fully understand the technological implications during the pandemic or understand the virus itself, said Lestina Saul-Merdassi, behavioral health counselor, youth program director and certified advocate at the Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition.

The increase in technological use, fast-tracked by COVID-19, can also be concerning, Lieneman said. She noted that her child in middle school will have nearly 20 courses in the calendar year and most, if not all, have an online component with numerous links per class.

Lieneman offered some solutions to simplify education, such as:

• Eliminating or reducing some homework.
• Starting school later in the day.
• Increasing recreational and social opportunities.
• Reducing technology use.
• Setting developmentally appropriate expectations.
• Prioritizing sleep, healthy eating and physical activity.

Despite the challenges, Lieneman said, all panelists spoke on similar topics, suggesting a unified goal to improve student and teacher outcomes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 reassuring to know that we鈥檙e all kind of seeing the same things, and that helps me feel like we鈥檙e on a team,鈥� Lieneman told the group, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e going to be able to accomplish something together as a state.鈥�

Members of the public can provide written comments to the Nebraska Advisory Committee before members forward a report to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Comments can be sent to Victoria Moreno at vmoreno@usccr.gov no later than Dec. 8.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

The data underscore the resiliency of pandemic-era learning loss and the depth of the challenge schools face in recovering academic losses. 

Looking beyond student proficiency, below is our latest roundup of updates from 12 states about how school systems are confronting the challenges posed by COVID-19 and its variants 鈥� and working to preserve student progress amid the pandemic:

IOWA 鈥� Schools Prepare to Tighten Budgets as Pandemic Aid Ends

Some school districts in Iowa are proactively strategizing how to keep programs such as full-day pre-school fully funded once . Karla Hogan, Cedar Rapids schools鈥� executive director of business services, said her district is simultaneously reserving some of its state funds from other areas while pushing on lawmakers to approve revised funding at the state level to avoid program cuts and layoffs.

OHIO 鈥� Governor Pushes For Science of Reading As Only Approach:

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is being described as taking the nation鈥檚 reckoning on literacy instruction and the 鈥渟cience of reading鈥� to new heights, proposing legislation that bars literacy approaches many say have lost credibility. Under the proposal, materials or lessons using approaches without a strong evidence base, including the use of 鈥渢hree-cueing鈥�, would be banned, which could include widely used programs like Balanced Literacy, Whole Language, and Reading Recovery. 鈥淭here is a great deal of research about how we learn to read,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd today, we understand the great value and importance of phonics. Not all literacy curriculums are created equal, and sadly, many Ohio students do not have access to the most effective reading curriculum.鈥�

ILLINOIS 鈥� Gov. J.B. Pritzker Renews Pre-K Expansion Push with 2024 Budget Proposing $250 Million Increase

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed increasing the state鈥檚 education budget by over the last budget, a notable push as he marks the beginning of his second term in office. While he鈥檒l need approval from state lawmakers, in 鈥減ositive social and economic impacts鈥� The proposal includes significant expansions in Pre-K programs across the state, centering on a four-year plan to create 20,000 Pre-K seats in classrooms by 2027. 

TEXAS 鈥� Dallas ISD Changed Some School Schedules to Combat Learning Loss. Did It Work?:

Two years after Dallas Independent School District , the district is digging into data to learn if the extended calendars made a difference for students. Dallas ISD Chief Academic Officer Shannon Trejo previewed data at a recent Board of Trustees meeting that indicates that offering three potential calendars 鈥� a standard calendar, an intersession calendar, and a school-day redesign calendar 鈥� may have helped some students recover and 鈥渞etain鈥� learning, though the gains were smaller than what trustees had expected. 

CALIFORNIA 鈥� 1.3 Million Los Angeles Students Could Soon Access Free Teletherapy

A new partnership between Los Angeles county schools and telehealth provider Hazel Health could provide short-term mental health services to the region鈥檚 1.3 million students amid a statewide focus on addressing spiking rates of suicide, depression, and other mental health concerns. After up to six weeks of services, Hazel Health says it is positioned to help connect students and families requiring long-term treatment to community-based providers. 

UTAH 鈥� Lawmakers Push to End School Grading

A bill being considered by the Utah legislature to evaluate schools and has cleared the House Education Committee with over 24 co-sponsors. The push is being spearheaded by State Rep. Douglas Welton, a former public school teacher, with support from the Utah State Board, the Utah Education Association, and the School Boards Association. If passed, the state would still identify schools performing in the bottom 20% for interventions, but would no longer assign schools grades A-F. A second education-focused bill in the legislature would tie recently approved teacher pay increases to inflation. 

MISSISSIPPI 鈥� New Study Says Holding Kids Back One Key Factor in Mississippi鈥檚 Reading Revolution

鈥淎 report released last week by ExcelinEd and Wheelock Educational Policy Center at Boston University should end the debate over the value of holding back students who are not reading at grade level by the end of third grade,鈥� writes Dr. Kymyona Burk of ExcelinEd and former Mississippi state superintendent Carey Wright. The report points to the policy as a main driver behind Mississippi’s sharp increase in reading scores for fourth graders on the 2019 National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP. Mississippi was the only state to post gains in ELA on the exam. 

ILLINOIS 鈥� Chicago Spent Big on Summer School in 2022. But Tracking Participation Proved Difficult

Chicago Public Schools is working through a secondary challenge posed by historic amounts of federal recovery dollars and the relatively rapid deployment of out-of-school and summer programs: tracking enrollment and participation. Data obtained by Chalkbeat on summer learning. However, the data makes it tricky to discern how many actually registered, how frequently and to what extent students showed up, and what kinds of positive impacts the investments may have had on learning or social and emotional health. The district says it鈥檚 at work to improve data collection and reporting for the summer of 2023.

KANSAS 鈥� State Program to Give $1,000 to Some Families to Fight Learning Loss. Here’s How to Apply

The Kansas Education Enrichment Program (KEEP), announced recently by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, aims to provide families meant to help recover lost learning incurred during the pandemic. Funding for KEEP comes from Kansas鈥� share of the American Rescue Plan Act鈥檚 State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund.

TENNESSEE 鈥� What Do Teachers Think About Curriculum Quality? Tennessee Knows

鈥淚t鈥檚 one (commendable) thing for states to prioritize access to high-quality instructional materials and training for educators,鈥� writes policy expert Jocelyn Pickford on the CurriculumHQ platform, 鈥渋t鈥檚 another (even more commendable) thing to track and study how those priorities are actually showing up in classrooms.鈥� Pickford showing 鈥渁 deep dive into teachers鈥� beliefs about curriculum and professional learning quality, among several other topics.鈥� Of note: 87% of teachers (regardless of subject) said their professional learning has been closely aligned to the instructional materials that have been adopted by their district and have led to improvements in their classroom instruction. Learn more on CurriculumHQ. 

NORTH CAROLINA 鈥� House Committee OKs Software for Learning Loss

North Carolina鈥檚 House Education Committee has to be used to provide districts with access to Gooru Navigator, a program that 鈥減rovides teachers and parents with up-to-the-minute performance data on how students are performing in the classroom,鈥� for up to three years. Jamey Faulkenberry, director of government affairs for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, told lawmakers the distinguishing feature of Gooru Navigator is that other platforms can feed into it, making the software more workable for localities.

NEVADA 鈥� Governor Joe Lombardo Orders K-12 Audits in an Attempt to Improve the State’s Public Education System

After campaigning partially on increasing transparency and accountability for K-12 public schools in the state, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo , with the goal of soon providing recommendations on how to improve K-12 outcomes in the state. The 14 various forms of audit include those on financial compliance and civil rights and must be submitted to the governor鈥檚 office by March 1.

This update on pandemic recovery in education collects and shares news updates from the district, state, and national levels as all stakeholders continue to work on developing safe, innovative plans to resume schooling and address learning loss. It鈥檚 an offshoot of the Collaborative for Student Success鈥� QuickSheet newsletter, which you can .

In recent weeks, at least seven states have advanced discussions or legislation around 鈥渟chool choice鈥� measures like charter school expansions and the establishment of Education Savings Accounts, which allow families to use state education funds towards attendance at private schools. Largely modeled on previous school choice efforts in and , among others, states like Nebraska, Iowa, , and are forging ahead with their efforts to allow use of education funds outside of traditional public school systems.

Looking beyond parental choice, here are ten other updates from across the country about how states and school systems are confronting the challenges posed by COVID-19 and its variants 鈥� and working to preserve student progress amid the pandemic:

CONNECTICUT 鈥� A State Program to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism Is Working

A new report by an between the Connecticut Education Department and prominent state research institutions 鈥� including Yale University, the University of Connecticut, and Wesleyan University 鈥� demonstrated implemented in some 15 Connecticut school districts. The program 鈥� called the or LEAP 鈥� was fueled by federal recovery dollars and leveraged trained family support staff to conduct home visits to families of students deemed chronically absent. Since 2021, home visitors have helped hundreds of families navigate distinct challenges like employment, housing, mental and physical healthcare, substance abuse, and the immigration system to ensure students attend school regularly and on-time. The study found an average improvement in chronic absenteeism rates of 15 percentage points, with some districts 鈥� like Hartford Public Schools 鈥� experiencing gains nearly twice that size.

INDIANA 鈥� State Doles Out $2.2 Million in STEM Grant Funding

The Indiana Department of Education recently announced that 48 school districts and charter schools across the state . The STEM Integration Grant seeks to increase access and support for schools to offer more learning opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math.

ILLINOIS 鈥� State Superintendent Proposes $516 Million More for Education

Illinois lawmakers are considering a budget request from outgoing State Superintendent Carmen Ayala , or a 5.3% increase. The request includes roughly $350 million more for K-12 schools, $60 million more for pre-K programs, and additional increases for 鈥渢ransportation, special education, and free meals,鈥� according to Chalkbeat. 

NEW YORK 鈥� Mayor Eric Adams Promises Mental Telehealth Support for all NYC High School Students

Amid spiraling concern about student wellbeing in the nation鈥檚 largest school district, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that all the city鈥檚 high school-aged students would . Framed as 鈥渢he biggest student mental health program in the nation,鈥� the announcement was met with cautious optimism from school and health professionals in the city. 鈥淚t raises lots of procedural questions which maybe they will fill in later, but it鈥檚 hard for me not to focus on those right away,鈥� said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, the executive director of Counseling in Schools. 

PENNSYLVANIA 鈥� High Schools Could Start Offering Students K-12 Education Training Next School Year

To expose students to careers in education and further develop and diversify the teacher pipeline, the Pennsylvania Department of Education will begin starting next school year. Schools can choose to offer the program informally or with department approval: the latter will make schools eligible for state and federal funding, according to Pennsylvania鈥檚 CTE director, Lee Burket. 

TENNESSEE 鈥� State Schools Need $9 Billion of Infrastructure Investment, Report Says

According to a new state report, Tennessee to tackle needs for renovations and technology improvements, as well as to build additions and new schools. The state received over $4 billion in federal relief funds, but under direction from Gov. Bill Lee, districts were encouraged to put at least half of their portions toward education recovery programs and resources. The report cites research that indicates investments in K-12 infrastructure can improve learning, health, and behavior, while noting local and state officials struggle to determine how to cover these costs. 

MICHIGAN 鈥� Whitmer鈥檚 Fifth State of the State Prioritizes Expanded Preschool, Tutoring

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer鈥檚 fifth State of the State address included multiple nods to expanded education programming in the state, including a push for universal preschool for all 4-year-olds and . Whitmer鈥檚 plans are expected to be thoroughly debated, even as she enjoys a Democratic majority in the state legislature and a state budget surplus, as advocates call attention to sharp staffing challenges and increasing clamor for expanded school choice policies.

NEBRASKA 鈥� Teacher Shortage Worsening Across Nebraska, State Report Says

The number of unfilled teaching positions in Nebraska , according to a district survey conducted by the state department of education. Though the unfilled positions represent just under 3% of total positions in the state, officials say the increases reflect a 鈥渟hrinking applicant pool鈥� that is posing particular challenges for hard-to-staff subjects, like special education, career programs, and language arts.

HAWAII 鈥� State Outlines Plan for 465 More Pre-K Classrooms by 2032

Education leaders鈥� goal of providing pre-K opportunities for all children in Hawaii within the next decade is kicking off with the planned construction or refurbishment of 80 classrooms by August 2024. The $200 million plan and places Hawaii amongst a small group of states that have approved large-scale expansions of pre-K programs.

MINNESOTA 鈥� Governor Proposes Child Tax Credits, Universal Free Lunch, Boost in K-12 Education Funding

Gov. Tim Walz has proposed a substantial K-12 education package that includes efforts to increase affordable childcare, universal free meals for Minnesota students, and a child tax credit for low income families. 鈥淭his budget will tackle and eliminate child poverty, put money into families鈥� pockets and fund our schools,鈥� said Gov. Walz. Walz was met with criticism from lawmakers across the aisle, who argue the proposed budget would send funds to schools that are failing to address low test scores and large achievement gaps.

This update on pandemic recovery in education collects and shares news updates from the district, state, and national levels as all stakeholders continue to work on developing safe, innovative plans to resume schooling and address learning loss. It鈥檚 an offshoot of the Collaborative for Student Success鈥� QuickSheet newsletter, which you can .

All 80 districts within the Los Angeles County Office of Education鈥檚 jurisdiction will have the authority to opt-in to services with Hazel Health, a telehealth provider that has partnered with districts nationwide to connect families with licensed care quickly and at no cost.

Their virtual therapy model removes some key barriers to accessing care from the equation, including insurance coverage, provider shortages or waitlists and transportation. Los Angeles Unified, the nation鈥檚 second largest district, and Compton Unified have already opted in.

In , nearly 70% of youth who鈥檝e experienced a major depressive episode did not receive any treatment 鈥� 10% above national averages. 

However, the new partnership is not designed to support students long-term.

鈥淓ach student can typically expect an intake visit plus six weeks to two months of weekly sessions before being discharged from the Hazel program,鈥� a spokesperson for Hazel Health told 蜜桃影视 by email. 鈥淭he program is short-term鈥攊f your child needs long-term mental health support, we will help identify and connect you with options in your community.鈥�

The $24 million dollar partnership with L.A. Care Health Plan, Health Net, and the L.A. County Department of Mental Health is to address the youth mental health crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic and social media. In addition, , who make up 86% of Los Angeles county schools. 

Los Angeles Unified has not yet finalized their implementation plan. It may take up to twelve weeks before sessions begin, according to a spokesperson from the county鈥檚 education office.

In December, some Compton Unified students began to access at-home services, and as of last week, two district schools began offering telehealth visits onsite. By March, the district plans to offer space for students to use at every campus.

Half of mental illnesses start by , and suicide is now the for children. Other school districts already partnered with Hazel include Clark County, Nevada鈥檚 largest, and Duval County Public Schools in Florida. 

While a enables youth 12 and up to confidentially sign up and meet with therapists on their own, Los Angeles鈥檚 partnership with Hazel will require students to be referred by a parent, guardian or school staff member. 

Over half of Hazel Health鈥檚 mental health providers are people of color and over 40% are bilingual. When necessary, clinicians use Language Line to facilitate sessions in students鈥� preferred language.  

鈥淗azel Health aligns the hiring of therapists to the demographics of its partner districts,鈥� said Van Nguyen, Public Information Officer for the LA County Office of Education. 

The company launched its first mental health visits in the fall of 2021, which range coping mechanisms and tools for general anxiety disorder, depression, academic stress and bullying. Presently, about 22 clinical mental health positions are vacant.

鈥淗azel鈥檚 hiring practices involve looking for trauma-trained clinicians with deep expertise in children and teens, as well as specific passion areas and specialties (such as LGBTQ). Getting the match right is critical,鈥� Drew Mathias, vice president of marketing, told 蜜桃影视. 

Their clinicians most often use cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing and dialectical behavior therapy approaches. 

Founded in 2015 by a pediatric emergency room doctor, K-12 educator, and former Apple software engineer, Hazel Health offers physical and mental health care visits to children at over 3,000 public schools.

A new study shows Ohio parents want to see students receive support inside and outside of the classroom, and they trust teachers to know how to lead their children.

In a study conducted over six months by the Children鈥檚 Defense Fund-Ohio in partnership with Baldwin Wallace University鈥檚 Community Research Institute, more than 1,000 K-12 parents were asked about everything from school nutrition to social-emotional learning, a concept named the 鈥淲hole Child Framework.鈥�

CDF-Ohio said supported recommendations that 鈥渨hole child鈥� approaches to education 鈥� including access to resources such as health care and food assistance, along with housing and transportation help 鈥� should be implemented in Ohio, as more than 430,000 children live in poverty statewide.

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鈥淭his means many children in Ohio risk arriving to school without their basic needs met, making it harder for them to learn,鈥� the study stated.

Schools are attempting to extend these services as they can, through behavioral health programs, free meals and community initiatives, hoping to hit basic needs to fight back against educational issues in the state like chronic absenteeism.

Findings in the study showed 46% of parents said their child ate a free lunch at school five days a week, and 87% of parents said those meals should be provided for free, 鈥渞egardless of the student鈥檚 ability to pay.鈥�

Overwhelmingly, parents agreed that school districts and communities should be working together to provide 鈥渆ducational programs that go beyond basic academics and provide customized, relevant support for the whole student.鈥�

In the study, 87% said that customized, relevant support should include 鈥渆vidence-based curriculum and instruction鈥� and 85% said school curriculums and instructional materials should be 鈥渞elevant to the life experiences, cultures and languages of their students.鈥�

This is counter to the ongoing 鈥渃ritical race theory鈥� battle going on in some Ohio schools. In a push by conservative organizations, school districts have been scrutinized for using curriculum that includes racial history. hoping to regulate school curricula and keep teachers from giving lessons that may make students feel 鈥渦ncomfortable鈥� and may contain 鈥�,鈥� such as the 1619 Project鈥檚 history of slavery in America.

Parents in the study held teachers in high regard, with more than 90% saying they trust teachers to 鈥渂e positive role models and teach age-appropriate content.鈥�

鈥淧arents across all demographics expressed confidence in their own ability to be a leader and partner in their child鈥檚 education and reported high trust in their children鈥檚 teachers to model and foster the life skills students need to succeed and thrive,鈥� the study concluded.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David DeWitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on and .

The announcement, which follows extensive reporting by 蜜桃影视 about how the tool subjected the city鈥檚 youth to pervasive round-the-clock digital surveillance, was outlined last week at the bottom of a newsletter alerting families to changes at the district. Gaggle, which uses artificial intelligence and human content moderators to track students鈥� online activities and notify district officials of 鈥渋nappropriate behaviors or potential threats to self or others,鈥� will no longer be used beginning on July 1, the district announced. 

A week after schools went remote in Minneapolis and nationally in March 2020, the district sidestepped typical procurement rules and used federal pandemic relief money to contract with Gaggle, a for-profit company that reported significant business growth when classes went online. The district has spent more than $355,000 on the tool, which monitors student behaviors on school-issued Google and Microsoft accounts, and has a contract with the company through September 2023. 

District officials said the tool saved lives but civil rights advocates and students targeted by the program have questioned its efficacy and accused the company of violating students鈥� privacy rights. 

In an email, district spokesperson Julie Schultz Brown attributed the change to 鈥渕ade in order to honor the terms of our new contract鈥� with educators. Gaggle founder and CEO Jeff Patterson said the Minneapolis district will stop using the tool at a moment when 鈥渟tudents across the United States are suffering.鈥� In June, the company alerted Minneapolis officials to 15 鈥渃ritical incidents鈥� related to suicide, death threats, violence and drug use, Patterson wrote in a statement. Nationally, the pandemic has led to a surge in youth mental health issues and . 

A recent report by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey warned that Gaggle and similar services could surveil students inappropriately, compound racial disparities in school discipline and waste tax dollars. Gaggle claims it during the 2020-21 school year, yet independent research on the tool鈥檚 effectiveness doesn鈥檛 exist. 

Teeth Logsdon-Wallace, a rising freshman in Minneapolis, saw the district鈥檚 decision to cut ties with Gaggle as a major victory. He became an outspoken Gaggle critic after a homework assignment, which discussed a previous suicide attempt and how he learned important coping skills, got flagged by the tool鈥檚 surveillance dragnet. Officials at Gaggle and the district said the tool helps identify students who are struggling emotionally and need adult intervention. But 14-year-old Logsdon-Wallace and other critics argue that digital surveillance is an inappropriate way to pinpoint students who need mental health care. Rather than helping, he said the experience 鈥渇elt violating and gross.鈥� 

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e spying on kids and their stuff, especially about mental health stuff, they鈥檙e just going to be more secretive about it,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat can just cause more danger.鈥�

While Gaggle relies on technology to ferret out students with issues like depression, Logsdon-Wallace said that he and other students are more likely to share their mental health struggles with adults at school if there鈥檚 a culture of trust. Monitoring communications through an algorithm and a team of low-paid remote workers who the students don鈥檛 even know, he said, had the opposite effect and left students more apprehensive about district computers, 鈥渨hich could be positive and negative.鈥�

While his peers learned how to better protect their own privacy online 鈥渆ven when it鈥檚 inherently being violated,鈥� he said, he worried that some may have been 鈥渂ottling up mental health issues because of it.鈥�

The district will no longer use Gaggle鈥檚 student activity monitoring tool or the company鈥檚 anonymous tip line, SpeakUp for Safety, which allows students to report potential safety threats confidentially. Instead of turning to SpeakUp, concerned parents and students should report issues to police officials with the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the district wrote in its newsletter. 

District officials have said the anonymous tip line was central to its decision to contract with Gaggle, yet previous reporting by 蜜桃影视 found that the service was rarely used. Meanwhile, the digital surveillance tool routinely flagged students who made references to sex, drugs and violence on district technology. An analysis of nearly 1,300 alerts found the service flagged Minneapolis students for discussing violent impulses, eating disorders, abuse at home and suicidal plans. 

But Gaggle regularly flagged benign student chatter and personal files, including classroom assignments, casual conversations between teens and sensitive journal entries. Gaggle flags students who use keywords related to sexual orientation including 鈥済ay鈥� and 鈥渓esbian,鈥� and on at least one occasion school officials in Minneapolis outed an LGBT student to their parents. The sheer volume of student communications that got flagged by Gaggle was at times overwhelming, the Minneapolis school district鈥檚 head of security acknowledged, but he also felt like he was able to save students from dying by suicide. 

In interviews with 蜜桃影视, former content moderators at Gaggle 鈥� hundreds of whom are paid just $10 an hour on month-to-month contracts 鈥� raised serious questions about the company鈥檚 efficacy, its employment practices and its effect on students鈥� civil rights. 

Moderators said they received little training before they were given access to students鈥� sensitive materials and were pressured to prioritize speed over quality. They also reported insufficient safeguards to protect students鈥� sensitive files, including nude selfies. Patterson acknowledged that moderators, who work remotely with little supervision or oversight, could easily save copies of students鈥� nude photographs and share them on the dark web. 

As a transgender teenager who believes the school district has done too little to address bullying, Logsdon-Wallace said he already had little trust in district leaders. While Gaggle didn鈥檛 address the abuse from peers, having his sensitive experiences caught in the company鈥檚 algorithm made the situation worse.

鈥淭he very little trust I had in the administration is just destroyed,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 expect students to trust you if you鈥檝e done nothing to earn that trust.鈥�

Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, a two-part documentary that premieres Monday on PBS, presents the raw accounts of nearly two dozen young people from diverse backgrounds who open up about their excruciating life experiences. Through varied stories that touch on issues like abuse, addiction and discrimination, the Ewers hope their film will give their audience an understanding that they came to themselves: Everybody, no matter their backgrounds, is affected by America鈥檚 mental health crisis in one way or another. 

The film, executive produced by renowned documentarian Ken Burns, was screened at the White House Thursday, with First Lady Jill Biden saying, 鈥淲e have so much work to do to help our children heal,鈥� and thanking the filmmakers for shining a light on mental health.

鈥淚t鈥檚 impossible not to be moved by the pain that these young people and their families share,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut there was so much hope there, too. Because they had all found a way from that darkness towards the light.鈥� 

The documentary can be seen at 9 p.m. ET on Monday and Tuesday and will be available on PBS stations nationally, PBS.com and the . It is part of , called Well Beings, to raise awareness about mental health issues. 

鈥淭he goal of the film, we hope, is that people will find relatability in their own lives through these kids鈥� stories,鈥� Christopher, who co-directed the documentary with his brother, told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淚 felt connected in ways that I can鈥檛 even describe to each and every person鈥檚 story. Some of them nearly destroyed me as we were filming their interviews because they hit so close to home.鈥�

The young people featured in it range in age from 11 to 27, including a teenager who lost the fight against addiction at the age of 15, a young Native American woman who felt so isolated that she contemplated suicide and a high school freshman who experienced a series of assaults that led to troubling hallucinations. Among them is Billie, a 15-year-old from a rural farming community who endured intense bullying for being transgender. For 14-year-old Xavier, trauma stemmed from an abusive father. 

鈥淐igarette smoke is a very triggering thing from my past since I associate that with getting beat by wooden sticks,鈥� said Xavier, who recalled getting beaten 鈥渇or seemingly no reason.鈥�

begin by the age of 14 and 75% occur by age 24, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. 

鈥淭he things my ancestors went through, it鈥檚 shown through alcohol abuse, addictions, non-stable families, toxic relationships,鈥� explains Alexis, a 21-year-old who grew up on a Native American reservation. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the burden that Indigenous youth deal with everyday, you鈥檙e just born into it.鈥� 

New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data offer bleak insight into the extent of the problem and how the pandemic has made the crisis even worse for millions of teens, especially LGBTQ youth and girls. In a recent CDC survey, more than a third of high school students reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic, nearly 20% reported that they seriously considered dying by suicide and a staggering 9% had actually tried. Even before the pandemic, suicide was a leading cause of death among teens as rates of youth anxiety and depression surged. In 2009, a quarter of high school students reported feeling persistent sadness or hopelessness. By 2019, that rate jumped to nearly 37%. 

Though the project has been years in the making, the film acknowledges how the pandemic has made the crises far more urgent. The Ewers are longtime collaborators with Ken Burns and the trio will continue working together to create a series of films examining the mental health crisis in America.

Over the course of four hours, this first film takes viewers on a journey that for many began with traumatic experiences that led to debilitating mental health struggles, but ended with a message of hope. Despite roadblocks including homelessness, arrests, addictions, eating disorders and suicide attempts, many of the young subjects were able to go on and live happy lives thanks to mental health care and the coping skills they developed.

Yet recovery is a lifelong process. It鈥檚 a lesson that Erik learned firsthand over the course of filming the documentary, he said. Throughout his entire life, he struggled to understand his emotional issues. Although his parents took him to a psychiatrist while he was in elementary school, it wasn鈥檛 until he started filming the documentary that he began to truly address his challenges. The youth in his film, he said, 鈥済ave me an education about myself.鈥�

鈥淚f the film has the power to do that for me, I can only hope that it will have that power for other people as well,鈥� he said. 

Christopher said the youth interviews hit home for his family, too, as his daughter struggled with mental health challenges of her own. Listening to each of the stories, he said, 鈥済ave us the courage and the commitment to see through the proper care for our daughter.鈥� 

As the filmmakers weave the young peoples鈥� individual stories into a cohesive narrative, the result can only be described as a gut punch. With the goal of presenting an unvarnished look into the pervasiveness of youth mental health crises, the documentary is difficult to watch at times. But sugarcoating the issue would be a disservice to those who are struggling, Erik said. 

鈥淚magine a kid out there who is literally watching it and we watered it down, which of course, we had not,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut if they did, they鈥檇 be saying 鈥榃ow, I鈥檓 a lot worse than I thought,鈥� or say 鈥楾his is bullshit.鈥欌��

The stigma still associated with mental health issues prevents many young people from sharing their experiences, yet the Ewers brothers said their subjects were motivated to open up on film 鈥� and wound up feeling better as a result. They were tired of keeping their suffering bottled up inside and hoped that greater awareness could save lives. 

Alexis, who grew up on the reservation, said that nearly all Indigenous youth are the victims of trauma and abuse to some degree. Yet also embedded in her DNA, she said, is resilience. 

鈥淚 know for a fact that my ancestors and my elders, they鈥檙e rooting for me and they want me to do good,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檒l share my story over and over again. I鈥檒l go through those emotions like a million times if it helps one person.鈥�