Mental health: Is that a job for schools?

Should mental health concerns be handled by schools? 

Numerous statistics – and students themselves – point to the significant struggles many young people in the United States are experiencing. In an effort to help, federal and state governments are allocating hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding to cover everything from training more providers to running mental health awareness programs. 

Advocates suggest the school building is the most accessible and least stigmatizing place for mental health support. But others are raising concerns about how many tasks often-overburdened schools can handle. 

“You do at some point have to ask some very basic questions about what are the expectations that we have of this thing called school,” says Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow focused on education at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. “No one is suggesting schools should not be concerned about