Conclusion

Dear Readers,

There is no question that the global pandemic impacted school systems in unique and comprehensive ways forcing the need to center mental health and well-being for all constituents (i.e., students, staff, and families). Prioritizing mental health in schools was simply not the hot button prior to this worldwide crisis. In addition, although still under debate, the persistent systemic and structural racism embedded within our society continues to plague our schools and communities as we work to mitigate historical atrocities, rampant colonialism, and ongoing state violence from all of our institutions across the US, especially for our Black, Brown and Queer citizens (Wright et al., 2023). Foremost, various statistics have spotlighted ongoing concerns about our nation’s well-being within the context of schools. To illustrate, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics schools reported that parents and the students’ themselves have grave concerns about their mental health (Irwin et al., 2022). In our current era, this is not surprising but nonetheless have dire consequences. Continuing along this vein, nearly 70% of the schools surveyed reported that the percentage of students who had sought mental health services from school had increased since the start of the global pandemic. In other words, seven out of ten students were looking for caring and supportive people to help them deal with personal concerns. And the increase in requests for mental health support was higher for students attending schools in wealthier neighborhoods (72%) compared to those attending schools in high-poverty neighborhoods (61%). Arguably, students might be more or less incline to seek help based on their perceptions of their school’s ability to attend to their needs as was discovered for a large sample of undergraduates in prior research (Vogel et al., 2007). Despite these increasing desires to receive mental health services, only 13% of the schools strongly agreed and 43% moderately agreed that their school effectively provided mental health services to all students in need. However, regardless as to whether participants came from poorer neighborhoods or identified as racially minoritized individuals, over 40% of the schools did not believe that their school environments were able to effectively provide mental health services to all students in need. We know and many have posited in these chapters espoused in this book that, in addition to economic shortages, racial discrimination and cultural disconnects abound continuing to fuel inefficiencies.