Published in USA Today and the Hechinger Report, May 30, 2021.

In February 2020, Caden McKnight was elected student body president of his high school in Las Vegas. 

A year later he was in his room, attending a Zoom meeting of the Clark County School District Board of Trustees, pleading with board members to reopen the district’s schools. 

Just being together in person and having a normal routine, Caden said, would help kids cope with mental health struggles. He told the board members about his own grief, over the death of his friend, Mia, who died just after Valentine’s Day this year from an accidental drug overdose.

“I knew her since I was 11,” he said of Mia, who had been his date to a homecoming dance. “I grew up with her and she got to see me grow up. It’s tough as a 17-year-old kid when these people around me are dying. I love my family, but I have no outlet to express how I’m feeling the way I used to when I was at school with teachers and friends.”

From loneliness and anxiety to severe or suicidal depression, the coronavirus’ mental health impact on youth has surged into its own epidemic, swelling the number of children’s visits to emergency rooms for mental health problems. National screenings show that children, adolescents and teens have struggled emotionally during the pandemic more than any other age group. More than one-third of teen girls and one-fifth of teen boys have new or worsening anxiety, according to a January pollby the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Michigan. 

But as waves of young people return to school, the system of mental health supports that await them remains patchy and overburdened.

As of 2018, each of the 37,000 school psychologists in the U.S. was responsible for an average 1,200 students, nearly double the recommended number. In some school districts, one psychologist is responsible for as many as 3,000 students, according to the National Association of School Psychologists.

“If we don’t address those non-cognitive factors, they won’t succeed academically, which is ultimately what we are held accountable for.” 

Ralph Aiello, director of school counseling for Broward County Schools in Florida

Read the complete article here. This story also appeared in USA Today