Seventy percent of public schools have seen a rise in students seeking help with their mental health since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new U.S. government study says.
Roughly 76 percent of public schools also reported an increase in staff voicing concerns about their students exhibiting symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and trauma, according to the study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), an agency within the U.S. Department of Education.
The study, based on data collected between April 12 and April 26, 2022, from a total of 830 schools participating in an NCES research program, also finds that 88 percent of respondents did not strongly agree that they could effectively provide mental-health services to students in need, largely because they didn’t have the manpower and money to handle the issue….