The information is obvious: Our college students are within the midst of a psychological well being disaster. A survey from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention discovered that one in three highschool college students skilled poor psychological well being in the course of the pandemic, and almost half of all college students felt persistently hopeless.
We’re now seeing the ripple results of three years of training disruptions and seismic shifts in studying constructions, which underscore the important significance of caring for the entire scholar. Our college students’ difficulties mirror the rising nervousness, despair, and suicidal ideation that teenagers nationwide are experiencing. Over the previous two years, Tempe Union Excessive College District has centered its concentrate on prioritizing scholar psychological well being. Right here’s how we did it–and what we’ve realized.
Leveraging the ability of scholar voices
After we returned to in-person studying, we noticed that our college students wanted much more help than we imagined. We didn’t hesitate when it got here to getting them the sources they wanted, as a result of timing is important for psychological well being challenges.
We requested our scholar representatives what social-emotional help they and their fellow college students wanted. That dialog advanced right into a districtwide complete psychological well being coverage adopted by Tempe Union’s governing board in 2021. Cementing a decision round social-emotional wellness into our insurance policies signaled to our college students and group that holistic well being is a serious precedence for Tempe Union.
