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More states requiring mental health education
Experts recommend beginning as early as kindergarten, with a focus on
age-appropriate instructional practices in areas like reducing stigma
and obtaining and maintaining good mental health.
Lucy Hood
Sept. 3, 2019
When three students in Virginia's Albemarle County Public Schools
(ACPS) noticed how stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health
issues were affecting many of their peers — and having an impact on
their own lives — they didn’t just push through and wait for graduation.
The trio took their concerns to state lawmakers, who were among the
first in the country to pass legislation requiring state-mandated
mental health education in K-12 schools.
“At each of our high schools, we had individuals who attempted suicide
either at school or outside of school,” said Lucas Johnson, a graduate
of Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia, who worked with
colleagues Alexander Moreno, a graduate of Western Albemarle High
School, and Choetsow Tenzin, a graduate of Albemarle High School, to
push for the bill.
The Virginia ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬law requires mental health education in the
9th and 10th grades. A proposal for implementing the new law extends
the mandate to include kindergarten through the 10th grade and will be
presented to the Virginia Board of Education next month, followed by a
period for public comment and a final vote of approval slated for
January 2020.
The proposed standards are designed to be incorporated into existing
standards for social and emotional health, said Vanessa Wigand,
coordinator for K-12 health education, driver education and physical
education for the Virginia Department of Education.
They include age-appropriate instructional practices aimed at reducing
stigma and teaching students how to obtain and maintain good mental
health, understand mental health disorders, pick up on signs and
symptoms of distress, and seek help.
At the 4th-grade level, for example, students will learn about healthy
self-concepts, compassion and respecting differences, as well as verbal
and nonverbal communication skills and how to understand and manage
emotions related to loss, grief and stress.
“These are explicit health skills that the kids will have so they know
it’s a good thing to seek help. We’re destigmatizing. We’re educating,”
Wigand said.
Multiple approaches to mental health awareness
Several states have either approved or have legislation in the works
related to mental health education. Some of them are aimed at
addressing concerns about additional workloads and teacher training.
A Colorado bill, for example, created a grant program to help with
professional development related to crisis and suicide prevention. A
new Texas law requires teacher preparation institutions to include
mental health instruction in their certification programs, and a Nevada
billcreated a grant program for districts to contract with social
workers or other mental health professionals.
Virginia, however, is one of only three states to mandate mental health
education at the K-12 level. The latest to do so is Florida, where the
state Board of Education approved a program in July that dovetails with
the Hope for Healing Florida campaign, an initiative of First Lady
Casey DeSantis that will create and disseminate materials about mental
health and substance abuse issues throughout the state.
“We are going to reinvent school-based mental health awareness in
Florida,” state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said in a
statement.
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