Education Week - February 22, 2023 - 2

New Evidence Shows
Pandemic's Impact
On Mental Health
New data have emerged underscoring the devastating
impact of the pandemic on the nation's young
people.
The report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention shows teenagers across the country
are experiencing an increase in mental health challenges,
with girls and those who identify as LGBTQ+
faring worse than boys and heterosexual youth.
The CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey draws on
data collected every two years among a nationally
representative sample of high school students. This
year's report is the first presented since the start of
the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey had more than
17,000 respondents and was conducted in fall 2021
when many schools were still in remote or hybrid
learning.
In 2021, 42 percent of high school students said they
experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness
during the past year, the report says, representing
a 13.5 percent increase from 2019 and a 50 percent
increase from 2011.
Fifty-seven percent of female students and 69 percent
of LGBTQ+ students said they experienced persistent
feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past
year, compared with 29 percent of male students and
35 percent of heterosexual students.
Twenty-two percent of students seriously considered
attempting suicide from fall 2020; 18 percent
made a plan; and 10 percent attempted suicide, the
report found. LGBTQ+ students were most likely to
report having suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
While the report doesn't examine what factors
are causing the upsurge in mental health problems,
changes in how people interact with each other, increases
in misinformation, societal conflict, and social
isolation from the pandemic could have been contributing
factors, said Kathleen Ethier, the director of adolescent
and school health for the CDC.
The findings underscore that teens' mental health is
declining and that schools, parents, and the community
need to provide resources to support teens.
" At a time when schools are increasingly being
turned into political battlegrounds in the 'culture war,'
we must remember that real, young lives are at stake, "
said Ronita Nath, the vice president of research at The
Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention
among LGBTQ+ youth.
Housing
History
The Bray School is sited
at its new home in
Colonial Williamsburg
in Virginia. Bray is
believed to be the
oldest surviving school
for Black children in the
United States-dating
to about 1750. The
curriculum, which
included reading,
religion, and sewing,
also justified slavery.
The school will be used
as a focal point for
research, scholarship,
and dialogue around
the story of race,
religion, and education
in the country.
More School Districts Are Paying Big Sums
To Resolve Claims of Sexual Misconduct
School districts are now paying a hefty price for not dealing
adequately with allegations of sexual misconduct.
A growing number shelled out legal damages or settlements
of $1 million or more last year-many stemming from lawsuits
related to sexual misconduct, crimes, and discrimination,
some of it dating back decades, finds a new report.
In its latest annual report, United Educators, an insurance
and risk-management company, analyzed some of the largest
financial losses districts sustained as a result of legal claims.
It lists 69 publicly reported damage awards and settlements
of $1 million or more among K-12 schools and colleges in 2022.
That was up from 38 awards of $1 million or more in 2021.
The increase highlights several trends, including a growing
tendency by sexual-abuse victims to hold institutions accountable
for how they address abuse, state law changes that allow
more victims to sue, and a greater mistrust of educational institutions,
say the report's authors.
Beyond the legal and financial consequences, there's an
emotional impact, as students and staff members come to
terms with potential wrongdoing by their district, and a reputational
cost.
United Educators pulls its data from publicly available records
and reports, and there are likely some settlements and
jury awards that aren't public.
One-third of large settlements reported in 2022 stemmed
from sexual-misconduct claims.
In 2022, the cost of sexual-misconduct claims included in
the report ranged from $1 million to more than $600 million,
said Bryan Elie, the vice president of underwriting
and product development for United Educators. The largest
award, totaling $615.6 million, was paid out by the University
of California system, which was accused of negligence
for employing a gynecologist who sexually abused dozens
of women.
" Half a billion dollars or more, I don't care how big the institution
is. That's game changing, and could be institutiondestroying,
depending on the fiscal strength of that institution
and the [insurance] coverage they may have, " Elie said.
The Pandemic Missing: Hundreds of Thousands
Of Students Haven't Gone Back to School
Hundreds of thousands of students around the country have
disappeared from public schools during the pandemic and haven't
resumed their studies elsewhere. In short, they're missing.
That finding comes from an analysis by the Associated Press,
Stanford University's Big Local News project, and Stanford education
professor Thomas Dee. An estimated 230,000 students
in 21 states could not be accounted for, according to their data.
These students didn't move out of state, and they didn't sign up
for private school or home school.
" Missing " students received crisis-level attention in 2020 after
the pandemic closed schools nationwide. Since then, they have
become largely a budgeting problem. School leaders and some
state officials worried aloud about the fiscal challenges their
districts faced if these students didn't come back. Each student
represents money from the city, state, and federal governments.
Early in the pandemic, school staff went door to door to reach
and reengage kids. Most such efforts have ended.
" Everyone is talking about declining enrollment, but no one is
talking about who's leaving the system and why, " said Tom Sheppard,
a New York City parent and representative on the city's
Panel for Educational Policy.
Discussion of children's recovery from the pandemic has focused
largely on test scores and performance. But Dee says the
data suggest a need to understand more about children who aren't
in school and how that will affect their development.
Students and families are avoiding school for a range of reasons.
Some are still afraid of COVID-19, are homeless, or have left the
country. Some students couldn't study online and found jobs instead.
Some slid into depression.
AP and Big Local News canvassed every state in the nation to
find the most recently available data on both public and nonpublic
schools, as well as census estimates for the school-age population.
Overall, public school enrollment fell by over 700,000 students
between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years in the 21 states plus
the District of Columbia that provided the necessary data.
Those states saw private-school enrollment grow by over
100,000 students. Home-schooling grew even more, surging by
more than 180,000.
BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Alyson Klein, Lauraine Langreo, and Caitlynn Peetz. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.
2 | EDUCATION WEEK | February 22, 2023 | www.edweek.org
Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP

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Education Week - February 22, 2023

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