Congress must act now to address mental illness in schoolchildren - The Hill's Congress Blog:

Congress must act now to address mental illness in schoolchildren

By Andrea Spencer - 05/13/13 02:30 PM ET

The raft of school shootings across the country is dramatic evidence of the need to provide a better support system for children with mental illness. As schools have focused more and more narrowly on academic performance, early warning signs of mental and behavioral health disorders have been all too frequently overlooked. The Mental Health in Schools Act of 2013 (S. 195) has placed a spotlight on children’s mental health, now at increasingly greater risk given cuts to state education budgets. These cuts threaten to further reduce already limited numbers of school counselors and other support personnel. In a time of “big data,” we cannot ignore the fact that one in five children in the United States suffers from mental illness. Over the past 20 years, suicide rates have nearly doubled among children between ages 10 and 14.

A recent report by the Center for Children’s Advocacy in Hartford, Conn., identified red flags in school records as early as kindergarten and first grade. More than 70 percent of students in the sample who were diagnosed with mental illness and behavioral health problems by middle school had exhibited warning signs by second grade. Of these, almost 25 percent exhibited risk factors during pre-kindergarten years. Red flags included an array of

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Congress must act now to address mental illness in schoolchildren - The Hill's Congress Blog

Congress must act now to address mental illness in schoolchildren