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This study used Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) administrative data within the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform to compare enrolment and persistence in postsecondary education (PSE) among high school graduates in British Columbia with and without special needs across five cohorts from 2010/2011 to 2014/2015 before and after controlling for several sociodemographic characteristics and academic achievement. The use of integrated longitudinal administrative data from the British Columbia Ministry of Education, the PSIS and the T1 Family File and the disaggregation of the special needs categorization were two major strengths of this study. Results show that high school graduates with mental health-related or cognitive needs and those with physical or sensory needs were less likely to enrol in PSE compared with high school graduates without special needs, even after controlling for covariates. Moreover, graduates with mental health-related or cognitive needs were less likely to transition to PSE immediately and less likely to persist in PSE two years after enrolment. These findings suggest that high school graduates with special needs, particularly those with mental health-related or cognitive needs, may encounter different types of barriers in transitioning to PSE.

Emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges make it difficult for many children and adolescents to engage and succeed at school. Research indicates that at least 20% of all children and adolescents have been diagnosed with one more mental health disorders. Behavioral problems, anxiety, and depression are the most diagnosed mental health issues, and they often co-occur. Moreover, these conditions are being diagnosed at increasingly younger ages. In the past several years there has been a rise in the number of adolescents and young adults with serious mental health issues such as major depression and suicidal ideation, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health problems for children and adolescents. Schools offer promise for providing intensive clinical support to the most at-risk students, and schools are necessary environment to explore the implementation of multi-modal youth mental health services. This paper provides an analysis of an intensive, in-school mental health services model developed and implemented by Effective School Solutions (ESS), a New Jersey based provider of high acuity school based mental health services for K-12 students. We analyze this multi-modal model for its effectiveness in improving educational outcomes for over 3,000 students identified as requiring intensive clinical mental health support across the 2021-22 school year. This analysis reveals that those students receiving High- versus Low-fidelity programming (i.e., multiple sessions per week for at least half of the school year versus for less than half of the school year) had better educational outcomes. Students receiving High-fidelity programming had greater improvements in grade point average (GPA) and greater reductions in absences across the school year. A higher number of in-school clinical sessions per week significantly predicted a greater increase in GPA and a greater reduction in total disciplinary incidents (including out of school suspensions) across the school year. This report provides initial promising evidence that in-school intensive mental health clinical services yield positive effects on students' educational outcomes. Though future research is needed to validate and extend these findings, schools may consider implementing such services onsite to meet students where they are and to optimize students' mental, behavioral, and educational well-being. [This white paper report was published by the Yale Child Study Center."]

"Reading for Life" seeks to provide a gateway to that research. Reviewing data on reading and literacy and their impact on the physical, mental, and social-emotional components of health, this paper will: (1) Review the current state of children's literacy and health, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Explore the importance of early-childhood education and literacy interventions in preschool, and their roles in health outcomes; (3) Summarize existing literature on the relationship between literacy rates and physical, mental, and social-emotional health; and (4) Study successful collaborations between the education and medical fields to implement literacy interventions in pediatric healthcare settings. [This paper was prepared by Scholastic Research & Validation as part of the Yale Child Study Center-Scholastic Collaborative for Child & Family Resilience.]

This briefing paper explores Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) policies and practices that state early intervention (Part C) programs may consider implementing to meet the social-emotional and mental health needs of infants and toddlers in the context of relationships with their parents and other caregivers.

As the COVID-19 crisis disrupted schooling, recovery efforts to ensure educational continuity in California included the adoption of Senate Bill 98, which mandated local educational agencies (LEAs) to complete Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans (LCPs). These plans act as critical snapshots of sensemaking in the midst of crisis; however, their details have yet to be explored statewide, concealing the potential trends that arise in local planning when traditional schooling is disrupted by crisis. Through a multiphase, mixed methods approach, this study examines the legislative requirements of an educational policy that orchestrated large-scale local planning. Results suggest that, during a crisis, equity is centered in both policy and the plans of public school districts, threaded through accessibility to instruction as well as academic and social-emotional supports. [For the Policy Brief, see ED624610.]

This report presents a snapshot of selected features of the condition of education in Wisconsin in 2019. With support from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences, and in collaboration with colleagues at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the authors set out to measure practices in PK-12 education that they considered especially important for educational equity and success for children in Wisconsin. Public school teachers and administrators in Wisconsin are responsible for educating about 855,000 students between four-year-old kindergarten and twelfth grade. State report cards produced annually by the Wisconsin DPI show how well we are doing as a school system with respect to student outcomes. In this paper, we focus on what principals and teachers in the state are doing. How do kindergarten teachers at both the four-year-old and five-year-old levels engage in play in their classrooms? How do elementary teachers group students for instruction and how frequently do they reconsider these groupings? What sorts of educational opportunities do teachers and schools offer their English language learners and their students with special needs? How supported do teachers feel in their early years in the profession? These are just a few of the questions we asked a representative sample of almost 700 principals and 2,200 teachers in the state. This paper offers a big picture view of instructional practice and educational opportunity in Wisconsin. It makes no claims about what schools and teachers should do to increase equity and success for students in Wisconsin. Instead, it shines a light on the many ways our educators work to support students in the state and, we hope, offers insights into where we might do better.

This report, commissioned by the Bay Area Geographic Leads Consortium, explores how five county offices of education and local school districts pivoted to reach, teach, and support the holistic needs of students experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report documents the rising number of students experiencing homelessness as well as the causes and consequences of childhood homelessness. It also describes how educators faced unique challenges and creatively found solutions to educating students without a stable home or an appropriate place to attend school remotely. Each county offers promising examples of ways to provide instruction and learning supports to students without homes and meaningful ways to deliver urgently needed social-emotional, mental health, and well-being assistance to students and families, including meeting basic needs such as food and shelter. The report also describes innovative ways that the counties addressed technology and connectivity gaps that resulted from the shift to distance learning and collaborated with community-based partners.

Although policymakers generally appreciate the value of crafting policies that are responsive to teacher and principal voice, doing so in a systematic way is challenging. Educator voices in the room when policies are made are often those of teachers and principals closest to policymakers. In 2019, to broaden the range of educator voices available to policymakers in Wisconsin, we asked more than 2,200 teachers and 700 principals in public schools in Wisconsin how "they" would change policy to improve the academic success of economically disadvantaged students. In total, 1,559 teachers and 601 principals offered suggestions for changing policy across four categories: school level--academic, student level, school level--non-academic, and community level. Though we saw variation in responses based on percent of student body eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch, grade levels served (elementary, middle, high school) and community type (city, suburb, town, rural), many responses appear with similar frequency among practitioners across contexts--indicating promise for making broader changes that impact all schools.

Reducing the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) is one of the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8. This has become an important indicator that is monitored by many countries and international organizations since youth NEET are prone to long-term economic and social difficulties. Although Canada-centric studies on youth NEET exist, they tend to focus on sociodemographic characteristics and on educational and employment outcomes. This report aims to expand the information on Canadian youth NEET by examining various sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics. It also aims to explore whether different subgroups of youth NEET experience similar psychosocial characteristics. This study is based on data from three recent Canadian Community Health Survey cycles (2015 to 2017). This study indicated various sociodemographic and psychosocial differences between Canadian youth NEET and non-NEET, and also highlighted the diversity among different youth NEET subgroups. Future research should continue to identify risk and protective factors related to NEET status by distinguishing among the subgroups of this population.

The Canadian literature on postsecondary access has identified many of its key determinants including parental education and income, academic performance, and sex. However, relatively little work has investigated the independent role of disability in postsecondary enrollment. This study fills that gap by estimating the relationship between mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions diagnosed in childhood (available from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth [NLSCY]) and postsecondary enrollment during early adulthood (available from the tax credits on the T1 Family File [T1FF]). The study is possible as a result of the recent linkage between the NLSCY and T1FF. The findings suggest that 77% of youth who were not diagnosed with any long-term health condition in their school years (the comparison group) enrolled in postsecondary education (PSE) by their early 20s. In contrast, 60% of youth diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental condition (NDC) enrolled in PSE in the same time frame (a gap of 17 percentage points), while only 48% of youth diagnosed with a mental health condition (MHC) enrolled in PSE (a gap of 29 percentage points compared with youth in the comparison group). Youth diagnosed with both an NDC and an MHC were even less likely to enroll, with only 36% going on to PSE (41 percentage points behind youth in the comparison group). Differences in sex, academic performance and family background (e.g., parental income and education) explain only about one-third of these gaps. Among the MHCs, the most common diagnosis was Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Youth with an ADHD diagnosis were less likely to pursue PSE than youth diagnosed with other types of MHCs such as emotional, psychological or nervous difficulties. These findings suggest that youth diagnosed with NDCs and MHCs in their school years face barriers to enrolling in PSE that are distinct from those confronting other youth.

University life is widely publicized as an adventure--a chance to engage with new ideas, people, and opportunities. While these vibrant interactions can be part of the college experience, participation in a competitive, high-stakes academic environment like University of Michigan (U-M) can pose very real challenges. Students must learn to navigate campus norms and culture, meet rigorous academic expectations, and manage financial, social, and personal pressures. Navigating these often-competing demands can create or exacerbate mental health concerns and jeopardize student well-being. In addition to these general complexities, individuals who hold identities that are marginalized in U.S. higher education spaces (e.g., students of color, LGBTQ+ students, undocumented students, students from low income families, international students) face additional burdens: emotional stress and labor arising from daily microaggressions, taunting, harassment, or worse. Mental health challenges are a common concern for students at U-M. Findings from the National Alliance on Mental Health's report "College Students Speak" (Gruttadaro & Crudo, 2012) show that 64% of students who have dropped out of college connect their departure to a mental health concern. In recent years, U-M's Counseling and Psychological Services unit (CAPS) has seen a surge in demand for its services. Their 2016-17 annual report highlights that service requests have nearly quadrupled since 2010, with an average increase of 5% per year that significantly exceeds U-M's annual increase in enrollment. In 2017-18, this annual increase continued with CAPS reporting a 6.7% increase from the previous academic year. The growth in demand for services, though alarming enough in its own right, is likely to be an underestimate of the actual incidence of mental health distress experienced by U-M students. Students may not access counseling support due to stigma surrounding mental health issues. They might also choose not to seek support via formal mechanisms because of cultural norms related to their identities or because of an actual or perceived lack of support professionals who share relevant identities. Both U-M students and instructors have identified a need for instructors to respond knowledgeably and compassionately to student mental health concerns. This Occasional Paper is designed to assist instructors in developing their capacity to support and assist students experiencing mental health concerns. It will introduce them to role-appropriate strategies to facilitate positive academic and health outcomes for their students, and shares strategies for proactively supporting student well-being. The paper presents principles that can proactively shape interactions with students who disclose a mild to moderate level of distress and distills best practices for responding to students experiencing severe distress.

Previous literature documents a strong relationship between food insecurity and mental health, and also examines the impact of safety net programs on food insecurity. However, little is known about the intersection between mental health, safety net participation, and food insecurity. In this research, we use a multi-program safety net calculator (including cash, food, and health insurance programs) and data from the National Health Interview Survey and the Current Population Survey to examine the effects of safety net generosity on food insecurity and mental health for single mother families. We examine four research questions. First, does state safety net generosity affect self-reported participation in safety net programs? Second, does mental health affect participation in safety net programs, conditional on generosity? Third, does more generous cash and food assistance affect mental health? And finally, how effective is the safety net in reducing food insecurity in the presence of mental health issues? We find that state-level safety net generosity does predict self-reported participation, and that conditional on generosity, those with mental health issues are significantly more likely to participate in safety net programs. More generous cash and food assistance is protective of maternal mental health, but results are somewhat sensitive to the measure of mental health examined. Finally, we find no effect of the safety net on 30-day food insecurity. These results have important implications for the effectiveness of safety net programs for some of the most vulnerable members of society: low-income mothers suffering from mental health challenges and their children.

Young adults face enormous economic, social and psychological challenges when they transition into adulthood. This transition can be especially overwhelming and daunting for young adults with disabilities. Among the challenges young adults with disabilities are faced with are greater risk of low food security and barriers to healthcare. This study examines how the transition to adulthood may affect food security, health, and access to healthcare for youth with disabilities, and estimates the effects that SNAP has on this group in those turbulent years. The study used five years of data (2011-2015) from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We combined the public and restricted NHIS data with the state SNAP policy variables. The sample included low-income individuals ages 13-25 (and their families) to reflect the life stage from pre-transition, to transition, and then to post-transition. Analyses were conducted at the Census Research Data Center in Columbia, MO. A difference-in-difference (DID) approach in linear models was applied to compare individuals with and without disabilities regarding changes in food security status and their health-related outcomes in the transition to adulthood. State SNAP policy variables were used as exogenous instruments to estimate the effects of SNAP participation on food security and health/healthcare use for youth and young adults with disabilities in the models of instrumental variables. Below is a summary of the main findings in which youth are referred to as individuals under 18, and young adults are referred to as individuals ages 18 to 25. (1) Compared to those without disabilities, individuals with disabilities have a greater risk of low food security in both childhood and young adulthood; (2) Transition into adulthood results in greater food security for individuals without disabilities but an increased risk of low food security for individuals with disabilities. The increased risk for young adults with disabilities may well put them at very low food security, the most severe category on the food security scale; (3) Food security status is associated with health and access to healthcare for all the four groups, youth and young adults, with or without disabilities. However, the associations between low food security and health-related outcomes do not seem to vary by disability status for young adults, indicating the additional risk of low food security that young adults with disabilities experience does not correlate with their health-related outcomes; (4) Contrary to our expectation, SNAP participation does not seem to have statistically significant effects on food security and health-related outcomes for individuals with disabilities. These impacts, although insignificant, show expected directions (i.e., improving food security and health) that are different from those often found in the OLS estimation that does not address the selection bias; and (5) SNAP participation is a statistically significant predictor of youth's food security status measured by the food security raw score only, but not the other three food security measures. SNAP participation appears to have greater impacts for youth than for young adults. In other words, the protective effects of SNAP decrease for young adults perhaps because they encounter greater barriers accessing SNAP than when they were young. The study's limitations are closely examined with a focus on the constraints that we had in the DID analysis and the IV analysis. We also suggested directions for future research. Since food security likely has a profound impact on the long-term development, economic independence, and self-sufficiency, we discussed a few policy strategies that may help individuals with disabilities in their transition to adulthood. These include special outreach services to improve SNAP accessibility, an embedded alert system that serves to bring awareness of a SNAP participant's upcoming transition to adulthood, incorporation of nutrition assistance in transition planning for youth, and better coordination of multiple public programs.

According to the National Institutes of Health, "Translational research includes …the process of applying discoveries generated during research in the laboratory, and in preclinical studies, to the development of trials and studies in humans… [and] research aimed at enhancing the adoption of best practices in the community. Following this tradition, this paper defines translational research in the Social-Behavioral-Educational (SBE) sciences as the recursive, bidirectional process of integrating scientific knowledge and research-based discoveries into community and societal practices and policies. Because there is a woeful lack of understanding about the science of translation, or how this very difficult work happens. Little is actually known about the strategies, structures, and processes of translational research that influence the capability and probability of diverse researchers from distinct disciplines collaborating effectively to solve significant social, behavioral, educational, and mental health problems. Barriers such as discipline-centric terminologies, traditional methodological approaches, time constraints, and narrowly conceived and executed dissemination strategies are significant. To accelerate the transmission of knowledge across the spectrum of theory, experimentation, implementation and diffusion, an augmented translational research approach specific to the SBE sciences is needed. The specific aims of this initiative are two-fold. First, the initiative will uncover various aspects (phases and processes) of translation that are most effective in addressing a range of significant social, behavioral, educational and mental health challenges plaguing society. Second, the knowledge gained about the science of translation will be applied to ameliorate specific social, behavioral, educational, and mental health problems by targeting specific substantive issues in these areas that impede individual, familial, social, and societal health. Through advanced understanding of the mechanisms by which meaningful integration of researchers from multiple disciplines and across the basic, applied, community and policy spectrum occurs, translational researchers will provide critical core support to augment the efficient translation around targeted SBE research. Relatedly, structures developed as a product of this initiative will serve as a hub to inform significant training, practice and policy advances among researchers in the SBE sciences. [Development of this white paper was completed with partial support from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED).]

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation's leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation, and statistics. IES's National Center for Education Research (NCER) supports rigorous research that addresses the nation's most pressing education needs from early childhood to adult education. IES's National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) supports a comprehensive program of education research designed to expand knowledge and understanding of infants, toddlers, and youth with and at risk for disabilities to improve their developmental, education, transition, and postsecondary outcomes. This paper makes the case that IES Development and Innovation research can support the development of usable, feasible, and affordable approaches (practices, programs, or policies) to help schools meet the mental health needs of their students and staff. The goal of this research is to ensure that school-based interventions are contextually appropriate, implemented with high fidelity, and more likely to produce equitable outcomes than current practice. [This paper was published in the "School Mental Health".]

The National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) convened a meeting of 23 stakeholders representing a national cross-section of experts in the fields of health and education on April 30, 2004. Among the participants were school health practitioners, educators, researchers, and funders. The meeting's purpose was to clarify and document the relationship between school-based health centers (SBHCs) and student academic performance. The diverse backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints among participants contributed to a vigorous discussion of pertinent issues. The meeting included a discussion of the educational policy context that is increasing pressures on SBHCs to document the impact of their services on academic performance. This paper aims to: (1) summarize the meeting proceedings and recommendations; (2) provide a stimulus for further discussion and research on the connection between SBHCs and academic performance; and (3) provide guidance to those currently working with SBHCs, including staff, researchers, evaluators, advocates and their educational partners on strategies to document and enhance the collaboration between SBHCs and educators to improve student success and sustain the viability of the SBHC initiative. (Contains 4 figures and 1 footnote.) [Funding for this paper was provided by The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.]

This paper explores some of the psychological and other issues associated with HIV infection in children. Although the majority of studies are in the West, a growing core of information is emerging from other centres. This paper attempts to summarise the complexity of who the children are, examine emerging orphan and vulnerability issues, explore HIV/AIDS treatment interventions and how they affect the emerging scenario in terms of child and parent infection, and then focus on the widespread psychological effects of HIV/AIDS on the young child. (Contains 4 tables.)

We examine how changes in maternal work hours affect adolescent children's school participation and performance outcomes using data from interviews in 1998 and 2001 with 1,700 women who in May 1995 were welfare-reliant, single mothers of adolescents living in disadvantaged neighborhoods in four urban counties. We find unfavorable effects of maternal work hours on several aspects of adolescents' schooling: Full-time maternal employment (31 hours or more per week) increases the likelihood of skipping school, decreases school performance, and increases the likelihood of parent contact by a school about behavior problems. Sons seem to be particularly sensitive to changes in mothers' average hours of work, with notable increases in incidences of being late for school and declines in school performance when mothers work more hours. These findings hold up controlling for a rich array of mothers' characteristics, including their psychological and physical health and experiences with domestic violence and substance. Appended are: (1) Criteria to be Eligible for Cross-Sectional Analysis Sample; and (2) Comparison of Means for Wave 2 Analysis Sample and Children Excluded from Sample. (Contains 7 tables and 8 footnotes.)

An Australian national task force examined a number of areas related to achieving educational equality for Australia's Indigenous peoples. This paper looks at health issues, particularly during ages 0-8, that may affect the educational outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Chapter 1 discusses the importance of the early years of life in terms of brain development and future potential; the low educational attainment of Indigenous students and low Indigenous participation in early childhood services; population statistics; and the national policy context on Indigenous education, including national efforts to accelerate Indigenous progress and recommendations on interagency cooperation between the health and education sectors. Chapter 2 summarizes findings on nine health issues of concern: the lower life expectancy at birth and higher mortality rates at all ages for Indigenous Australians; low birth weight and failure to thrive; malnutrition and poor quality diet; high rates of infectious diseases and high incidence of educationally significant hearing impairment due to otitis media; social and emotional well-being; substance abuse; adolescent pregnancy; childhood trauma, including that related to family violence and child abuse; and childhood injuries. Chapter 3 describes Indigenous conceptions of health and well-being as encompassing family and community, and current initiatives that link community development and capacity building to childhood health issues. The appendix presents the Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the 21st Century. (Contains 43 references.) (SV)

This working paper is one of eleven individual research reports in which researchers with expertise in older adult populations gathered the most current available data, examined policies, regulations, and programs relevant to population aging and older Californians, and presented findings and recommendations. The issues examined-- economic well-being, work and retirement, housing, transportation, health status, mental health status, long-term care, residential care, family caregiving, and successful aging-- encompass most of the key issues concerning an aging population and Californias principal responses to its senior citizens. The report notes that the states efforts toward meeting the needs of older adults with mental illnesses must be improved. Programs must be expanded so that more older adults can be served. Further, the report features pertinent efforts made by universities and private organizations, and argues that these organizations assume a critical role in providing for the well being of the older population. Finally, three emerging issues that warrant further attention are highlighted: the increasing diversity of the aging population; the expansion of managed mental health care; and the development of a statewide system of mental health care for older adults. (Contains 60 references and 2 tables.) (GCP)

Since women are more likely than men to experience co-occurring mental health and substance abuse problems, they have a greater need for comprehensive treatment models. Additionally, women of color often have less access to routine medical care where early diagnosis and intervention can be done, so their mental health and substance abuse problems are often more developed and complicated. Culturally sensitive social service practice is believed to increase many aspects of care including mutual communication, utilization of services, treatment effectiveness, and consumer satisfaction. Following background information on the problem of mental health disorders and substance abuse addictions in minority women, a discussion is included on the stigma surrounding women of color who have mental health or substance abuse problems. Service delivery and treatment program issues are reviewed followed by action steps communities can take to help address these problems. (Contains 88 references.) (JDM)

Mental health is an essential component for students' overall development and for creating a healthy and productive school environment. This paper reviews the literature on mental health in schools, highlighting the importance of psychopedagogical interventions. Key risk and protective factors are discussed, along with intervention strategies that can be implemented in the school context. It is concluded that an integrated approach, involving collaboration among educators, psychopedagogues, families, and the community, is fundamental for promoting mental health and academic success for students.