New Laws Aim to Combat the Youth Mental Health Crisis. Here’s What They Do

Education Week

A new report outlines recommendations and progress on state support for student mental health. Released by Inseparable’s Hopeful Futures Campaign, the report calls for the expansion of Medicaid to cover school mental health services, including for students without a formal diagnosis. The report also recommends increasing the ratio of mental health providers to students. States are working to meet that goal in a variety of ways, such as passing legislation to fund the hiring and training of school counselors, expanding access to telehealth, and working with universities to boost the mental health workforce. In addition to passing laws in these areas, states need to ensure they have the staffing and other infrastructure to implement those policies, said Angela Kimball, senior vice president of advocacy and public policy at Inseparable. “If you want to see implementation happen the way it’s intended, you need to create some structure at the state or regional levels that helps schools understand the intent, understand best practices, and get the support that they need to actually achieve the goal of helping students,” Kimball said.

Spark Extra! Learn about building state suicide prevention infrastructure.