Report: Student Mental Health Issues on the Rise

Nearly half of school mental health providers (46%) in a recent survey said that student mental health has worsened this school year compared to last year. The 2024 State of Student Mental Health Report from eLuma, a provider of online mental health services for K-12 students, surveyed more than 500 school educators, administrators, counselors, and mental health professionals across the country about the mental health needs of today's students.

Mental health issues account for 23% of the total disease burden for adolescents in the United States, according to data from Mental Health America. Yet just 10% of mental health professionals in the eLuma survey reported being able to provide consistent and well-coordinated continuity of care to students. Barriers to consistent care include absenteeism, family dynamics, and transportation issues, the report found.

"When we have things that get in the way of seeing students, it makes it harder to maintain continuity," noted Kay Kelly, a school psychologist at eLuma, adding that getting access to students is often the hardest part of ensuring care. Addressing inequities such as access to transportation, meals, and materials can remove some of the biggest obstacles to students' well-being, the report said.

The top three challenges impacting students' mental health, according to the survey, are family dynamics, social media, and having basic needs met. School mental health providers also reported spikes in student anxiety around extended school breaks, "especially as students transition out of structured environments into less predictable settings."

"April is a very high-risk month. It has a number of variables for students, like the end of a very structured setting and graduation, creating a lot of school-based stressors," said Kelly. "Schools can preemptively mitigate this by offering additional support during these times, such as workshops, group counseling, or proactive mental health check-ins."

The report offered four recommendations for better meeting the mental health needs of students:

1) Expand school-based mental health services. Schools should prioritize hiring more mental health professionals, including counselors, social workers, and psychologists, the report said, as well as invest in professional development for teachers to bolster their ability to recognize and address students' mental health challenges.

2) Improve family engagement. To form a stronger partnership between schools, and families, provide psychoeducation for parents, offer flexibility in communication, and connect families to external resources, the report advised.

3) Remove systemic barriers to access. Transportation challenges and socio-economic inequities often prevent students from accessing consistent mental health support, the report said. Schools should advocate for community and policy changes to help remove those barriers.

4) Prioritize early intervention and prevention. Implementing universal screeners can identify at-risk students and help address mental health issues before they escalate, the report asserted. "These proactive measures can significantly reduce the long-term impact of mental health disorders and contribute to a healthier, more supportive school environment."

"The mental health crisis among K-12 students is real and urgent," said Brandy Samuell, eLuma mental health & IEP-related services expert, in a statement. "Our findings underscore the importance of early intervention and consistent, coordinated care. The good news is that there are practical, evidence-based strategies we can implement right now to make a difference."

The full report is available for download on the eLuma site (registration required). 

Letter to the Editor

As a public high school student in California, I wanted to point out how student mental health has gotten worse throughout the years. Your article points out that many students struggle with mental health because of things like family problems, social media, and not having all of their basic needs met. Unfortunately, schools don't provide much attention to mental health. This article suggests a few ways to help students, such as hiring more mental staff like counselors and psychologists, working more with families, and catching problems early. This article also highlights that stressful times like extended school breaks or the end of school years can make students more anxious. Schools are encouraged to provide extra support during these times. While these ideas sound great they might be hard to put into action because they require more money, staff, and time. Still, the report makes it clear that schools need to act quickly to prevent students from having bigger problems down the road.

I am writing this letter to raise awareness about the growing mental health crisis because it is happening at my school too. I want to emphasize the importance of addressing the issue by offering simple solutions that might help part-time, as you said in the article, adding more mental health professionals. I think this could help schools. I know it would help mine, because we have five counselors for a school with a population of 2,233 students. If half of us needed a counselor, we wouldn't be able to get the support we need. My goal is to urge schools, families, and policymakers to take action to create a more supportive environment for students and ensure they have the mental health resources they need.

Another solution could be to take pressure off of the students. I know that there is a lot of pressure put on students nowadays to go to college, and to get good grades. Using myself as an example, I struggle in school sometimes and have a lot of anxiety from all of the pressure to be perfect, while playing [sports] and being at school for nine hours a day. Adding all the school missed for games and tournaments, it's very hard to keep up when I already struggle. I have a feeling that other people feel the same way, and if adults could help and take pressure off of us to be perfect there would be so much less stress, suicide, and anxiety, and we would have happier and healthier people.

Sincerely, Sophia Spark

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

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