School-Based Support for Student Mental Health and Wellbeing: From Clarion Call to District Response

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Building Inclusive Futures: Culturally Competent Leadership and Critical Perspectives for Student Flourishing

Abstract

How our education system responds to the mental health challenges of youth, including those who face historical and persistent barriers to opportunities, will have lasting impacts on youth, families, schools, communities and our nation more broadly. Over the last five years, in the context of a university-community partnership, we have had the unique opportunity to study a TK-8 district’s effort to improve its capacity to create a coordinated system designed to support the mental health of its diverse student population. Our findings describe the factors that have helped and hindered the district’s improvement effort and highlight how school-based mental health programs have the potential to contribute to creating equitable opportunities and ultimately advancing a vibrant future for public schools.

Author

• Kristin Geiser, John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, Stanford University