IN Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Spring 2019 | Page 69

District is Awarded Grant to Address Students’
Mental Health Needs
On June 22, 2018 Governor Tom Wolf
signed Act 44 of 2018 into law, creating
a School Safety and Security Committee
within the Pennsylvania Commission
on Crime and Delinquency. This school
safety legislation was developed in
direct response to violence occurring in
schools across the country. This newly
formed committee has been charged
with administering $60 million in grant
monies to schools throughout the
Commonwealth.
Brentwood Borough School District
applied for grant money under this
program in October 2018 and was
awarded the Part A $25,000 meritorious
grant in December 2018. The district has
also submitted a competitive grant for
Part B funding, and, if awarded, those
monies are not anticipated until later in
the 18/19 school year. The $25,000 grant
has been awarded has been allocated
to the purchase of a SEL curriculum
to address the social, emotional, and
behavioral needs of elementary students.
Social and emotional learning (SEL)
is the process through which children
acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and
skills necessary to understand and
manage emotions, set and achieve
positive goals, feel and show empathy for
others, establish and maintain positive
relationships, and make responsible
decisions. Social and emotional skills
are critical to be a good student and
citizen. Extensive research has shown
that programs designed to promote
social and emotional competence in
students produce important outcomes,
including improvements in standardized
academic test scores that are, on
average, 11 percentage points higher for
students who received SEL programming,
compared to students who did not
receive SEL. In addition, high-quality
instruction in SEL has been associated
with reduced problem behaviors
including conduct problems, drug use,
and violence.
SEL skills develop in the context of
social relationships and within school
and classroom contexts, where children
learn, apply and practice the skills of
self- awareness, self- management,
interpersonal awareness, relationship
skills and decision-making. Because
SEL is influenced by the culture and
climate of the school and classroom it
is important that educators and school
leaders attend to school- wide routines,
habits, and practices that reinforce
a positive school climate, while also
teaching the social, emotional, and
cognitive skills that build positive youth
development.
The district reviewed available
literature and found the following
concerning statistics:
• Approximately 1 in 5 children
currently have or will experience
a severe mental health disorder,
however, only 40 percent of
individuals with mental health
disorders receive treatment in any
year.
• For people who experience mental
health disorders, most experience
their first symptoms before young
adulthood (half with onset of
symptoms by age 14). Even more
alarming is that the median age
of the onset of anxiety disorders is
seven years of age.
• Close to half of these students will
likely drop out of school.
• Suicide is the second leading cause
of death among adolescents and
young adults.
• A little over 1 in 5 (22.2 %)
adolescents between the ages of
13-18 experience a mental health
disorder that has a severe impact
on daily functioning. In essence,
this equates to the potential for as
many as five students in a typical
classroom of 25 students having a
mental health disorder that severely
affects daily functioning across
schools in Pennsylvania.
• Substance abuse or dependence
is the most commonly diagnosed
disorder for young people, followed
by anxiety disorders, depressive
disorders, and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder. Depression,
like other mental health disorders,
appears on the rise in school-age
students. According to the Johns
Hopkins School of Public Health
(2016), the rate of adolescents
reporting a recent experience with
depression has grown by 37 percent
over the past decade, with 1 in 6
girls reporting an episode of clinical
depression within the past twelve
months.
These reported findings, along with
other emerging data, further indicates
that there is an increasing number of
untreated adolescents with depression.
While not surprising, these findings
further highlight the important role
that educators play in supporting social,
emotional, and behavioral wellness in
students. Students with mental health
disorders such as depression are at
greater risk for a variety of unhealthy
behaviors when compared with their
peers. Students with depression are less
likely to participate in school activities,
are more likely to skip class or miss time
away from school, disrupt classroom
activities, and engage in risky behavior
such as using controlled substances, and
are at greater risk to attempt suicide.
Given the amount of time children and
adolescents spend in school, coupled
with the proportion of students that
have mental health challenges, it is not
surprising that educators are on the front
line to notice challenges, and, in turn,
implement evidence-based prevention
and intervention programs.
BRENTWOOD-BALDWIN-WHITEHALL
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SPRING 2019
67