School Resilience

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, few school had adequate mental health resources, with one school psychologist often having responsibility to serve the entire student body of multiple schools. Teachers and administrators, often charged with the functional duty of student psychologist were not only untrained for this responsibility, but often in need of support themselves. While the priority of achieving high test scores continues to drive the daily education process, first addressing related and unrelated pandemic trauma with resilience strategies is finally being recognized.

Prior to the pandemic, districts began paying more attention to teachers’ mental and emotional wellness, offering sessions on mindfulness, yoga, exercise, and healthy eating. But COVID-19 has significantly heightened mental and emotional suffering across all professions, including teaching.

A McKinsey & Company survey indicated that the pandemic was affecting the behavioral health of 90% of their employees while The Kaiser Family Foundation found that rates of anxiety and depression have quadrupled during COVID-19. 

The toll on K-12 teachers appears to be particularly acute, with 84% of teachers surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center in March 2021 indicating that teaching is more stressful than it was before the pandemic, with worries of burnout driving an exodus from the profession.

Key stress drivers are longer work hours, struggles to engage students remotely, repeated pivots from hybrid to remote to in-person instruction and fears that they, or their loved ones, could contract COVID-19.

Meanwhile, student’s mental health deteriorated during the pandemic, when isolation from normal activities and peers and cabin fever exacerbated family conflicts. With just 9.75 U.S. child psychiatrists per 100,000 children under age 19, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) says that number should quadruple.

Parents seeking a developmental pediatrician are also often out of luck, with long waits for appointments and high volumes of unreimbursed care.

Psychologists have reported a 30% in demand for services for children under 13 and a 16 percent increase for adolescents.

While teachers and administrators are employees with their own families, who have been battling the same Covid-19 related trauma as students and their families. Yet, most school systems prioritize the students’ well-being, with little regard for their instructors and caregivers. Ensuring that academic, social development occur in a safe environment is new for all members of our school systems. The detriment of isolation on our teachers, administrators, youth and their families must be addressed before we can successfully resume the business-as-usual model of pre-pandemic education.

Schools perform best when their teachers, administrators, students and families feel cared about, not just what they are held accountable to test scores and grades. This primary need of personal and family well-being — especially during a pandemic — can best be demonstrated by school systems addressing the trauma being experienced throughout the schools, including their families. This is exactly the mission of HLN. Greater care for the teacher, administrator, student and family’s primary needs leads to improved happiness and performance throughout the school system.