 Dear reader,
At a recent gathering that included many college deans and presidents, my Hechinger Report colleague Olivia Sanchez and I individually asked them to describe the greatest crisis facing higher education today. Overwhelmingly, the answer came back in two words: mental health.
The pandemic, the state of our country and the age of students (most mental health conditions develop by the age of 24) are contributing, but what’s even more important is finding students the help they need to either stay in school or get back on track after they’ve taken time off. It's one reason why Olivia’s story this week is such an important reminder of the lack of affordable and easily accessible resources available to students.
To explore this urgent crisis, The Hechinger Report partnered with the Solutions Journalism Network and six newsrooms across the U.S. to examine efforts that are helping to alleviate students’ mental health needs, such as peer counseling, college re-enrollment programs and district mental health services coordinators.
We learned that even before the pandemic began, more than 1 in 3 high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and dug in to investigate how educators and others are addressing this crisis with our partners at The Christian Science Monitor and at the Education Labs at AL.com, The Dallas Morning News, The Fresno Bee, The Post & Courier and The Seattle Times. We are anxious to hear your thoughts on this issue, and also hope you will consider this provocative piece by a psychologist (and father of young adolescents) who believes smartphones and abuse of screen time are a contributing factor to the decline in student mental health. As always, we love to hear from our readers.
Liz Willen, Editor
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