“Exacerbated by the pandemic, the current mental health crisis is well documented, and it’s felt in homes and classrooms here in Illinois and nationwide:
Forty-two percent of Illinois high schoolers reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 2021; nearly half of surveyed Illinois students reported it’s hard or very hard to manage their emotions; and Hispanic and multiracial students reported lower well-being than their white peers, according to the American Institutes for Research this year.”
Mashana Smith, PhD, is the associate director of School Mental Health, Healing Centered Engagement with Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Center for Childhood Resilience.