Letters: Schools need mental health counseling

Schools need mental health counseling

The State Safe Schools Task Force did an excellent job of identifying policies and practices to make schools safer and more conducive to learning.

I’d like to offer one more area that needs to be addressed: access to mental and behavioral health counseling and social work services. Many students experience challenges that require more intensive intervention than can be provided by a guidance counselor. The lack of intensive intervention services often leads to serious discipline problems, truancy, academic failure and worse. Stronger intervention services in schools would do much to prevent the problems that become roadblocks to student success and a positive learning environment.

Obviously, this will require resources. Creative collaboration and partnerships would help. To foster a productive school climate, we need to focus on both reaction and prevention. Increased access to these important support services in schools would be a meaningful step in the direction of prevention.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 2:35 PM.