Friday, April 24, 2020

SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH IS A CIVIL RIGHT CONTEST

California Association of School Counselors are launching a contest to provide a platform for students to express their feelings about mental health services in school. Students can submit essays, poetry, visual art, songs, videos, or any form of expression. 

Here are some ideas and facts to guide your creations. 

You can also answer this guiding question: 
Why/How is mental health and well-being critical to student success?

  • Discuss your thoughts or feelings on school closures and their impact on student mental health, stress, and trauma.
  • If the California legislature reopens soon, lawmakers will vote on ACR 172 to declare May 4-8 Student Mental Health Week. This is historic, but not enough. Review the language of the legislation. Share your thoughts or creative interpretation of it.
  • California is 48th in the nation when comes to access to school counselors. Here there is only one counselor for every 600 students although experts recommend at least one counselor for every 250 students. Almost 400,000 California students are in schools that lack a counselor but have a police officer. How does this limited counselor access impact students?
  • California’s students are among the least likely in the nation to have a social worker in their school. Currently, there are over twice as many police in schools as social workers in California.
  • Most of California’s schools do not have a full-time nurse. California has more security guards in schools than nurses who provide physical and mental health support. Thoughts? 
  • Many California school psychologist serve over 1,000 students. As a result, many students are not able to receive the supports, interventions, testing/assessments, and more that they deserve.
  • Our recent report published with youth leaders found over 40% of school districts are illegally spending money on police and security that should spend on staff like counselors and nurses. Thoughts?
Entries will be publicized on social media and will be shared with the public, including with CA education leaders.

DIRECTIONS: Email your entry to acluca.yls@gmail.com by 8pm on Friday, May 1st. Winners will be announced by May 5th and will be welcome to join us in a Zoom meeting/webinar on May 8th at 11:00 AM.

PRIZES: Amazon gift cards ranging from $50 to $100.

RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS
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