Delaware lawmakers confront worsening mental health crisis for teens with these new bills
Democratic lawmakers on Monday introduced an ambitious package of bills aimed to help teens in crisis, including funding more mental health professionals in high schools and allowing students three excused absences for mental health reasons.
As American teens are more depressed, anxious and suicidal than ever before, a national report recently found that Delaware schools do not have enough trained staff to help students struggling with their mental health.
About 6,000 students experienced major depressive episodes in the past year without receiving treatment, according to America’s School Mental Health Report Card by the Hopeful Futures Campaign.
The Department of Education, during its budget hearing this year, called for $30 million in funding for mental health services. Education Secretary Mark Holodick said at the time that the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has made some students’ behavior “extreme and difficult” for teachers to manage.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/24/delaware-lawmakers-mental-health-services-teens-schools/70144979007/
