Supporting Students’ Social-Emotional Health During Re-opening
By Aaron Leo, Jessie Tobin, & Kristen C. Wilcox
The changes wrought by the pandemic have had drastic effects on the mental health of youth across the world. As previous NYKids blogs have noted, incidents of trauma have spiked among young people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, reports that among children ages 12-17, the number of mental health-related emergency department visits increased by 31% compared to 2019.
The frequency and severity of child abuse and neglect is also increasing across the nation as families are stuck at home quarantined together under stressful circumstances. Families already strained due to the economic and social impact of the pandemic may lack the ability to replace the vital mental health and counseling services which had been provided to children in their schools.
As children start to return to school, educators are exploring ways in which they can support their students’ mental health and provide them with resources to help address the traumas they experienced throughout the pandemic. One resource is the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Competencies framework provided by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
In this blog we review a recent event held by the School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS) which explored the importance of SEL, and we discuss some related findings in NYKids’ latest study of positive outlier schools.
Coping with Trauma
On Wednesday, March 17th, SAANYS held an event titled “Leader in Me Addressing Trauma in Your School: How Are You Coping?” The featured speaker was Muriel Summers, the principal of A.B. Combs Magnet Elementary School in North Carolina.
Principal Summers outlined her decades of experience serving as the leader of a school that utilizes CASEL’s Social-Emotional Learning Framework, which became a valuable resource to help children cope with the struggles induced by the pandemic.
In relaying powerful stories about her students learning to process their emotions and support one another, Principal Summers called on educators to consider how they treat children who are returning to school, as some may be going through Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Focusing on the language we use when talking to children is crucial; “What happens when the child gets to school – do we add to the trauma?” she inquired. If a student is visibly upset, Principal Summers suggests asking the student “what happened to you?” instead of “what is wrong with you?”
In particular, Principal Summers explained how CASEL’s Five Social-Emotional Competencies have helped guide students and educators during this uncertain time.
These skills include:
- self-awareness
- self-management
- social-awareness
- responsible decision-making
- relationship skills.
Principal Summers explained how crucial teacher-student relationships are in order for SEL to help children “jump the hurdle” of traumas they experience. “Human connectedness has been missing,” she said. “A lot of children thrive on these [relationships].”
In hoping for a “light at the end of the tunnel” with regard to the pandemic, Principal Summers also stressed the need for hope and resilience. “Resilience does not eliminate risks and stress, but allows an individual to deal with them directly,” she told the audience. She also called for educators to trust each other as they had “never before,” adding that “success would depend on the collective efforts of everyone in the school.”
Lessons from NYKids’ Positive Outlier Schools
Several lessons about supporting students’ mental health can be drawn from NYKids’ recent cross-case study of 22 students who attend positive outlier schools—Crown Point and Malverne. In particular, we found that students felt that adults cared about their well-being, and that social-emotional learning and students’ mental health were top priorities.
1. Expressing care for students is a whole school effort
Many students described how adults in their schools – from bus drivers and cafeteria workers to their teachers and counselors – expressed care and concern for them. While some students described the important role that counselors and social workers played in their mental health, creating a positive and supportive school climate was something they felt was coming from all adults in the school.
“Everybody here cares about me. Even the security guards, they know my name. They’re always nice. They always make conversation.” – Sean (from Malverne)
Students at Crown Point also described the numerous ways educators at their school supported their social-emotional health. The close connections that students developed with their teachers proved to be crucial when students sought them out for support.
“[Teachers] always help you…it’s always like “Hey, what’s up?” You get to know them a little bit. Eventually they become really good friends” – Harold (from Crown Point)
2. Prioritizing mental health and social-emotional learning is a top priority
Mental health was seen as a top priority for students at both schools. At Malverne, “Meditation and Mindful Mondays” provided students with healthy outlets to deal with stress and trauma. Students also described how their teachers clearly expressed the importance of their wellbeing above and beyond academic success.
“In sophomore year, I was going through a little bit of a tough time, and I was at extra help for my AP Chem. I had a really bad test and . . . I was kind of getting upset about it. But my teacher came and said, ‘Listen I don’t care about your grades, I care about your well-being.’ ” – Robyn (from Malverne)
At Crown Point, students are given opportunities to connect with adults and share their feelings. One such program was the “Panther Partners” which invites students to communicate with teachers about issues in their school. Students also shared ways in which educators fostered strong connections between peers through peer mentoring, leadership opportunities, and through a variety of other informal supports.
“My teachers were helping me in my classes when I was over-stressed and couldn’t process things. And then I had friends helping me with more trivial stuff like opening the locker and learning to do all that. I just learned how to handle stress better and how to handle my emotions better that wasn’t just bottling them up until I exploded and couldn’t handle anything.” – Mark (from Crown Point)
For more information about supporting students’ mental health and prioritizing social-emotional learning please visit our Resources page and check out the positive outlier school case studies in the full case study reports on our website. As always, we encourage you to reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or by email at nykids@albany.edu for direct support in using NYKids research and improvement resources.
