Abstract
Nearly eight million American youth between the ages of 3 - 17 live with a psychiatric or behavioral health disorder. Many in grades K-12 are being unfavorably impacted in the classroom because of socioeconomic and environmental factors that include poverty, addiction, incarceration, trauma, domestic violence, homelessness, and mental illnesses. The problem has only intensified since Covid-19. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) specifies that every child is deserving of a free and appropriate public education. The primary determinant for meeting eligibility requirements for services in the mental health system is the degree of emotional impairment determined by the assessment. However, educational functioning is considered a life domain. Public education does not consider this a primary factor in the treatment planning process. Consequently, the student demographic that IDEA once represented does not address the psychosocial needs presenting in our classrooms. Therefore, this chapter will explore the current behavioral health crisis impacting America's students.
Reference68 articles.
1. AdelmanH.TaylorL. (2006). The Implementation Guide to Student Learning Supports in the Classroom and School Wide: New Directions for Addressing Barriers to Learning. Corwin Press.
2. Albee, L. J. (2018). A parent’s plea for reform of school safety and mental health programming. Autism Spectrum News, 10 (4), 16, 25.
3. Teaching Individualized Sexuality Education to a Young Boy With Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Least Restrictive Environment
4. American School Counselor Association. (2019). ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs (4th ed.). Author.
5. Toward the Integration of Education and Mental Health in Schools