We have mental health problems in our society and kids come to school.

I ran across the following tweet a few weeks ago and I couldn't agree with it more.

If I hear one more person say we have a mental health problem in our schools I’m gonna scream. We have mental health problems in our society and kids come to school.

— Josh Starr (@JoshuaPStarr) February 16, 2018

Like many other educators and school leaders, I have been thinking about the tragedy in Florida since it occurred last month. The details of the school shooting continue to come out and continue to shock us. Unfortunately, every school in America may have a student or students that fit a similar profile as the school shooter in Parkland, FL. This is a scary reality and how do we fix this? I don't think the solution is to arm teachers. I believe it starts with providing resources that go beyond academic supports. Schools lack the resources to effectively deal with behavioral health. We need to address the whole child. Our students need wraparound services that span the Continuum of Care: Promotion, Prevention, Treatment and Recovery.

Due to our state's budget issues over the past few years there has been considerable discussion about efficiency across the state. Basically, how can we "do more with less?" I know we can always find more efficient ways of doing things to save money - this is my job as a school superintendent. These efficiency discussions concern me, because I think it is a nice way of saying "spend less." Communities across North Dakota from rural to urban lack resources and specialized staffing to address mental health. The system itself is difficult to navigate, even for the most connected and educated people. Schools, social services, and health care work in silos, which further compounds this issue.

Effective behavioral health services cost money. Currently, we do not receive funding in this area. Schools have been seeking outside help with these costs. For example, we are collaborating with our county correctional facility and social services to pool funding. This funding will be used to help address our school and community's behavioral health needs. Next school year we will be able to hire a clinical counselor to provide therapy for both students and families. This is a start for our school district, but a clinical counselor is pretty far along the Continuum of Care. We need to start earlier with Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), students can learn social skills and ways to cope with their emotions. We are having conversations with daycare centers to begin teaching SEL. We will be developing a plan to teach/address SEL throughout grades K-12. We must elevate SEL to the level of academics. Social and emotional curriculum and instruction occurs in the Promotion and Prevention area of the Continuum of Care. The earlier we address SEL the higher the likelihood we can address the deficit.

We should think about social and emotional learning the same way we think about academic achievement. Educate students on SEL and target interventions when needed.

— Mike McNeff (@mdmcneff) February 1, 2018

I fear that this will spark a brief debate about behavioral health in society and then the media will move on after a period of time. We will forget, hide, or mask this problem and then another tragedy will happen. Our kids need help and schools are not equipped currently to provide the level of wrap around services needed. So rather than using resources to arm teachers, let's focus our resources to address the whole child.

How are you educating the whole child?

A previous blog on this subject: Less Talk More Action