Friend,

At last night’s State of the Union address, President Biden laid out just how far we’ve come in a year—from closed schools, millions of COVID-19 cases and soaring unemployment, to record growth, jobs, vaccines and the return of reliable and safe in-person learning.

His speech was wide-ranging and showed that Americans were right to elect him as president. He met a moment in history with gravity and empathy. He urged unity to recover from the immense economic challenges of the pandemic, with a laser focus on boosting wages and cutting costs to help American families recover and thrive.

He touched on so many issues that we care about, including the success of the American Rescue Plan, making it easier to unionize by passing the PRO Act, lowering the cost of child care, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and renewing the child tax credit. He rallied the world behind the Ukrainian fight for freedom and made clear America’s commitment to democracy.

Biden laid out an agenda squarely in line with what the American people want, and I’m grateful for leadership like that.

One of the things that I’m so glad Biden did was talk about mental health. A national conversation on mental health care is long overdue, and Biden making it a centerpiece of his State of the Union goes a long way to removing stigmas around the conversation.

Whether it’s students who struggled with their mental health during school closures, healthcare workers burnt out from two years of an ongoing pandemic, or veterans with the aftermath of armed conflicts, we need to be able to meet the moment and help people heal and recover. AFT members in our schools have worked hard over the years to care for our students’ mental health, especially with the harmful effects of social media, even as chronic underfunding and attacks on education have taken a toll on the mental health of educators and school staff.

And we’re going to continue that work supporting our students and educators. While Biden’s team kicks off a national tour on mental health, I wanted to take a moment to make sure you have our resources. Share My Lesson has great collections and trainings on helping students with their mental health. These resources are completely free to educators, parents and students alike. I hope that you can use these or share them with someone who needs them.

Click here for Share My Lesson’s free mental health resources.

Let’s keep working to reclaim our future, because a key piece of that is managing our students’—and our own—mental health.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President