At first, Mira Ugwuadu felt a sense of relief when her high school transitioned to remote learning in 2020, allowing her to work on advanced placement courses at her own pace. But soon, the 17-year-old found herself studying outside of school hours, unable to separate academics from her home life.
When her classmates went back to in-person learning at her metro Atlanta school, Mira stayed home because she didn’t want to risk her health. Ultimately, the social isolation and intense workload resulted in severe feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Mira reached out to school counselors for help but was met with denial after denial: “Oh, the counselors are too busy. … Oh, the counselor is in a meeting,” she recalled being told. When she finally met with one, “the counselor just told me, ‘We have to send you home,’ and barely even talked to me or addressed my concerns at all.”
Now, the high school senior avoids school counselors altogether.
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Already burdened by a heavy workload before the pandemic, school counselors have seen the problem intensify. Though student-to-counselor ratios are at their lowest in at least 30 years, they remain well above professional recommendations, while students’ demand for mental health services is surging. Struggling with pandemic-related issues, students are reporting a greater sense of hopelessness, more abuse at home, and higher rates of suicide attempts.
During the 2021-2022 school year, the average student-to-counselor ratio was 408-to-1. The American School Counselor Association has recommended a ratio of 250-to-1 since 1965.
The added layers of stress, social isolation, and life disruption during the pandemic has led to dire mental health outcomes, with adolescents even showing accelerated brain aging. The “soaring rates of mental health challenges” among youth prompted a group of national health organizations to declare a national state of emergency in children’s mental health in October 2021, saying that the crisis was “inextricably tied to the stress brought on by COVID-19.”
Students in majority-minority schools — those where at least half of students are of color — have had even less access to counselors and psychologists than in majority-white schools. Meanwhile, Black youth have been disproportionately burdened with the worst impacts of the pandemic, with higher rates of COVID-related hospitalization and learning loss. Black youth lost a primary caregiver at nearly double the rate of white children between March 2020 and November 2021 — a loss with lifelong effects on rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and suicide. And about 25% of Black youth reported a parent or adult lost their job during the pandemic.
The limited supply of mental health professionals has created significantly longer wait times for students — more than a year, in some cases, said Dr. Christine Crawford, associate medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The problem is particularly critical in rural areas, where preexisting challenges with geographic isolation, food and housing insecurities, and chronic shortages of mental health resources cause higher rates of psychological distress. Limited internet service can be an additional barrier to accessing telehealth services.
“My overall concern is not about what’s happening, present day,” Crawford said. “I’m worried about the impact of the cumulative effects of all these delays in entering mental health care and how that’s going to alter the trajectory for a lot of these kids.”
The shifting role of the school counselor
The hurdles to providing adequate mental health services in schools are multifaceted, including insufficient staff to manage caseloads, lack of licensed professionals, and limited funding.
In other cases, school leaders haven’t reckoned with the shifting role of school counselors in the post-pandemic world, said Crystal Brewer, chair of the Magnolia State School Counselor Association. The responsibilities of academic advising, record keeping, and clerical work is “not what we’re trying to do,” she said, and they limit the focus on students’ mental health concerns.
“When you’re trying to be there to help the students who are dealing with issues or trauma or crisis, and you’re also still trying to do the records and the meetings and the other things … sadly, it’s the students who end up not getting what they need,” Brewer said.
Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said some school districts have struggled to find the appropriate staff to deal with the growing issue of student behavior and other concerns.
“When I meet with superintendents, mental health concerns are their most important concern, followed closely or almost together with staff shortage of our teachers, counselors, health care professionals,” he said. “There’s a general shortage of education personnel across the board.”
Congress allocated $122 billion to support elementary and secondary schools in response to the pandemic through the American Rescue Plan in 2021, including mental health support services. But schools reported spending only 15% of the federal funding during the 2021-2022 school year because of a delay in accessing the money and staff shortages, The Washington Post reported.
Even when the funding is used, districts planned to spend only about 7% of those resources on mental health services and COVID mitigation strategies, according to data published by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Nearly two years after the historic investment from the Biden administration, some schools are still unable to provide the necessary post-pandemic mental health care, forcing students to find help elsewhere or fall through the cracks.
Missed opportunities
Living in Boise, Idaho, 14-year-old Delphine Robin has often been the only Black student in her classroom, or one of very few. She has struggled to make friends, improve her academic performance, and speak out against racism at her school, she said. Some of those issues worsened during the pandemic.
In her new high school, Delphine has felt burdened by pressures from school leaders to fix race relations, which also have contributed to her declining mental health, she said.
“They’re like, ‘What can you do for us that we can continue to help these relationships?’ Well, I am a 14-year-old girl. Do not ask me that. I can give you ideas, but you can’t just put this on me. It has to be a group effort,” Delphine said. “It shouldn’t really even be like this.”
Delphine’s mom, who is white, saw the devastating effects that living as a Black child in a predominantly white state had on her daughter.
“She was feeling isolated, saying she wanted straight, long hair because she wasn’t seeing any mirrors in her classrooms,” Laura Loftus said, adding that Delphine didn’t want to participate in gymnastics or other activities because she was the only Black kid. “I feel like it was getting in the way of her growth and development and trying new things, and I could tell she was depressed.”
Matters of social justice and multiculturalism are included in the professional training standards crafted by the American School Counselor Association and accepted by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. But often, Black children’s concerns are not taken seriously. Members of the American School Counselor Association are overwhelmingly white: 76% compared to 11% who are Black.
t first, Mira Ugwuadu felt a sense of relief when her high school transitioned to remote learning in 2020, allowing her to work on advanced placement courses at her own pace. But soon, the 17-year-old found herself studying outside of school hours, unable to separate academics from her home life.
When her classmates went back to in-person learning at her metro Atlanta school, Mira stayed home because she didn’t want to risk her health. Ultimately, the social isolation and intense workload resulted in severe feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Mira reached out to school counselors for help but was met with denial after denial: “Oh, the counselors are too busy. … Oh, the counselor is in a meeting,” she recalled being told. When she finally met with one, “the counselor just told me, ‘We have to send you home,’ and barely even talked to me or addressed my concerns at all.”
Now, the high school senior avoids school counselors altogether.
GET CAPITAL B IN YOUR INBOX
Sign up for our newsletter and get more news and analysis from our reporters weekly.Email AddressSubmit
Already burdened by a heavy workload before the pandemic, school counselors have seen the problem intensify. Though student-to-counselor ratios are at their lowest in at least 30 years, they remain well above professional recommendations, while students’ demand for mental health services is surging. Struggling with pandemic-related issues, students are reporting a greater sense of hopelessness, more abuse at home, and higher rates of suicide attempts.
During the 2021-2022 school year, the average student-to-counselor ratio was 408-to-1. The American School Counselor Association has recommended a ratio of 250-to-1 since 1965.
The added layers of stress, social isolation, and life disruption during the pandemic has led to dire mental health outcomes, with adolescents even showing accelerated brain aging. The “soaring rates of mental health challenges” among youth prompted a group of national health organizations to declare a national state of emergency in children’s mental health in October 2021, saying that the crisis was “inextricably tied to the stress brought on by COVID-19.”
Students in majority-minority schools — those where at least half of students are of color — have had even less access to counselors and psychologists than in majority-white schools. Meanwhile, Black youth have been disproportionately burdened with the worst impacts of the pandemic, with higher rates of COVID-related hospitalization and learning loss. Black youth lost a primary caregiver at nearly double the rate of white children between March 2020 and November 2021 — a loss with lifelong effects on rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and suicide. And about 25% of Black youth reported a parent or adult lost their job during the pandemic.
The limited supply of mental health professionals has created significantly longer wait times for students — more than a year, in some cases, said Dr. Christine Crawford, associate medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The problem is particularly critical in rural areas, where preexisting challenges with geographic isolation, food and housing insecurities, and chronic shortages of mental health resources cause higher rates of psychological distress. Limited internet service can be an additional barrier to accessing telehealth services.
“My overall concern is not about what’s happening, present day,” Crawford said. “I’m worried about the impact of the cumulative effects of all these delays in entering mental health care and how that’s going to alter the trajectory for a lot of these kids.”
The shifting role of the school counselor
The hurdles to providing adequate mental health services in schools are multifaceted, including insufficient staff to manage caseloads, lack of licensed professionals, and limited funding.
In other cases, school leaders haven’t reckoned with the shifting role of school counselors in the post-pandemic world, said Crystal Brewer, chair of the Magnolia State School Counselor Association. The responsibilities of academic advising, record keeping, and clerical work is “not what we’re trying to do,” she said, and they limit the focus on students’ mental health concerns.
“When you’re trying to be there to help the students who are dealing with issues or trauma or crisis, and you’re also still trying to do the records and the meetings and the other things … sadly, it’s the students who end up not getting what they need,” Brewer said.
Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said some school districts have struggled to find the appropriate staff to deal with the growing issue of student behavior and other concerns.
“When I meet with superintendents, mental health concerns are their most important concern, followed closely or almost together with staff shortage of our teachers, counselors, health care professionals,” he said. “There’s a general shortage of education personnel across the board.”
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