Jeffrey Fuller: Pa. budget must support children who need help

May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and Pennsylvania’s children need support now more than ever.

Taking care of their physical health is one of the very first things we teach children. We all remember our parents telling us, or telling our own children, to look both ways before crossing the street or to wear a helmet when riding a bike. These are important lessons, but are we doing enough to teach children that taking care of their minds is just as important as taking care of their bodies? The answer, sadly, is no.

For too long, mental health has been treated as an afterthought. Even worse, an unfortunate stigma has arisen around people asking for help. We are now left with a situation where the need for mental health care is especially acute for our children.

According to the CDC, one in five children in the United States suffers from a mental health disorder. From 2007 to 2019, we saw a 60% increase in the number of adolescents who reported having a major depressive episode.

And then covid-19 hit. The mental health crisis among children existed long before the pandemic, but covid-19 worsened it by adding isolation to the challenges that our children were already facing. In 2021, 40.1% of Pennsylvania students reported symptoms of depression.

Too many children don’t have access to help or don’t know how to ask for it. Tragically, suicide is now the second leading cause of death among children ages 10 to 14.

We cannot lose one more young life to this crisis. As a commonwealth, we must deliver more support for children who need help.

Our schools need to be part of a comprehensive solution. Schools are where children spend most of their time. Schools are where children develop their social and emotional skills. Schools are where children should receive the first point of care for their mental health — not in a hospital or a courtroom.

But right now, many schools lack the resources to support students’ mental health needs. Nearly 100,000 public school students in Pennsylvania lack a school counselor. Our teachers are asked to be counselors, on top of their already difficult job, with none of the training or support. Our children need somewhere to turn in a moment of need, and thankfully we have a governor who recognizes the urgency of this situation.

The Shapiro administration is dedicated to supporting the needs of all Pennsylvanians, especially our children. The governor’s proposed budget will invest $500 million over the next five years so that schools can connect students and staff to mental health services and ensure a pipeline of trained school professionals in the future. That’s half a billion dollars — and our children deserve not a penny less.

Annually, $80 million of this funding would provide School-Based Mental Health Supports Block Grants to give schools flexibility to pursue the solutions that are right for their school community. For some, that could mean hiring school counselors, social workers and psychologists to work in schools. For others, it could mean allowing them to contract with community and nonprofit groups to provide telehealth or community-based services. Also, $10 million will support paid clinical internships for individuals pursuing state certification as school-based mental health professionals, while an additional $10 million will go to bolstering training and establishing pathways to certification for these professionals.

Shapiro’s bold budget proposal ensures that every student in Pennsylvania will receive the support they need. Schools would have continuity and predictability in funding to hire and maintain staff, while students would have access to trained professionals they can trust, in places that are familiar to them, free from shame or stigma.

Pennsylvania’s children are counting on us, and we must be there for them. With Shapiro’s budget, we can make our students’ mental health a priority — so they can succeed in school and beyond.

Jeffrey Fuller is deputy secretary for elementary and secondary education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.