Our “emotional backpack” holds all sorts of feelings, beliefs, and experiences that impact our mental health at school and capacity to function effectively.  Here’s how school staff can manage their own backpack, as well as support students who are so overloaded that they struggle to learn. Students and Staff Carry Emotional Baggage That Hinders Learning […]

Every school district is feeling the pain of soaring student mental health issues: declining academic performance, disruptive classroom behavior, and an enormous burden on school staff. Some districts are trying to solve the problem by placing more social workers as mental health counselors in schools. Unfortunately, that isn’t likely to help.  A licensed clinician can […]

The events of the past few years—the pandemic, shootings, riots, political and ideological battles—have left many of us traumatized. The result is widespread emotional dysregulation, an inability to manage emotional states and responses. And it’s not only children and teens who are experiencing emotional regulation difficulties. It’s the adults, too. Schools across the country are […]

The new question about school mental health programs A few years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for school administrators to question whether schools should get involved in the mental health of their students. Today, with the skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, school refusal, and suicides among children and teens, the question is no longer whether to […]

Special education was intended to help a small percentage of students who have disabilities that significantly impair learning and make it impossible for them to succeed in a general education classroom.  Providing IEP classifications to every struggling student, even when they don’t meet the criteria for classification, is a disservice to students and also puts […]