News Mashup for January 2022

Written By Margaret Mangan, YMA Digital Communications Coordinator

Harsh Spotlight on California’s System of Care

In its annual Report Card on child well-being, Children Now gave California’s System of Care a D+ for mental health this month, taking the state to task for ongoing “failure to create environments that help children to be emotionally well.” While it’s widely acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed California’s already fragile system of care and workforce capacity, D+ or similarly poor ratings seem to be a longstanding norm for the state (e.g. Children Now 2018). According to the 2022 report, adequate services and supports are hard to come by, and when “families do find mental health services for their children, it’s due to perseverance, privilege, and luck rather than a comprehensive system.” In tandem with the 2022 Report Card, Children Now released a Pro-Kid Policy Agenda for California to serve as a roadmap for decision-makers and legislators.

The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) released its own assessment of California’s System of Care in January. The DHCS acknowledges the statewide increase in the number of young people living with a serious emotional disturbance (1 in 13 with SED) and rising suicide rates, especially among low income, Black and Latino youth. County behavioral health directors canvassed for the assessment spoke out about the need for school- and community-based outpatient services and stressed the importance of early-age prevention efforts. The directors also called for culturally responsive care, one that embraces all genders, sexual orientations, races, and ethnicities. Throughout the assessment, DHCS is quick to point out that many remedies are already underway (e.g., CRDP, CalAIM, BHCIP, CYBHI) but recognized that more can, and will, be done to improve the lives of young people and their families. Click on the links below to learn more.

Manatt Health. January 10, 2022. Assessing the continuum of care for behavioral health services in California: Data, stakeholder perspectives, and implications. California Department of Health Care Services. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Documents/Assessing-the-Continuum-of-Care-for-BH-Services-in-California.pdf .

Children Now. January 12, 2022. 2022 California Children’s Report Card. Retrieved January 30, 2022 from https://www.childrennow.org/portfolio-posts/2022-california-childrens-report-card/ .

Wary and Weary Students

According to the National Center for Education Statistics the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the education of about 70 million children, youth, and young adults in the US, with many experiencing shifts between remote, hybrid, and in-person learning. This January, heading warily and wearily into the second half of the 2021-2022 school year, researchers, administrators, educators, advocates, parents, and students bear witness to the effects of ongoing educational disruption. Click on the links below to review recent research, data, and commentary.

Viner R, Russell S, Saulle R, et al. January 18, 2022. School closures during social lockdown and mental health, health behaviors, and well-being among children and adolescents during the first COVID-19 wave: A systematic review. JAMA Pediatrics. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2788069 .

Maria Carrasco. January 13, 2022. Variants fuel decline in student mental health. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/01/13/students-are-more-stressed-now-last-january .

Emily C. Hanno, Lily S. Fritz, Stephanie M. Jones, et al. January 10, 2022. School learning format and children’s behavioral health during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Pediatrics. Retrieved January 30, 2022 from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2787966 .

Jordan B. Conrad, Kate Magsamen-Conrad. January 13, 2022. Understanding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on families involved in the child welfare system: Technological capital and pandemic practice. Child & Family Social Work. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cfs.12876 .

Sarah D. Sparks. January 18, 2022. New research shows how bad the pandemic has been for student mental health. Education Week. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://www.edweek.org/leadership/new-research-shows-how-bad-the-pandemic-has-been-for-student-mental-health/2022/01 .

Hanno, E.C., Wiklund Hayhurst, E., Fritz, L., Gardner, M., Turco, R.G., Jones, S.M., Goodson, B. (2021). Persevering through the pandemic: Key learnings about children from parents and early educators. Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved January 30, 2022 from https://zaentz.gse.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ELS@H-COVID-Report-July-2021_Final.pdf .

Libby Pier, Michael Christian, Hayley Tymeson, Robert H. Meyer. June 2021. COVID-19 impacts on student learning: Evidence from interim assessments in California. PACE. Retrieved January 30, 2022 from https://edpolicyinca.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/r_pier_jun2021.pdf .

Medicaid and Special Education Services During the Pandemic

Recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted students with disabilities, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released a brief this month detailing how Medicaid and special education services are intended to meet disability-related needs. The brief “explores how the pandemic has affected children who receive special education services, and identifies key issues to watch moving forward.” KFF emphasizes the following:

  • If a child is eligible for both special education services and Medicaid, federal law requires state Medicaid programs to pay for services that are both educationally and medically necessary.

  • Medicaid/CHIP covers half of all children with special education plans. Children with special education plans covered by Medicaid/CHIP are more likely to have greater health needs compared to those with private insurance only.

  • The onset of the pandemic and ensuing school closures created disruptions and challenges in how children received special education services. Many children with special education plans experienced missed or delayed services and loss of instructional time during the pandemic.

  • Students with special education plans may be entitled to compensatory services to make up for lost skills due to pandemic related service disruptions, and some children, such as those with disabilities related to long COVID, may be newly eligible for special education services.

Appendices to the brief lay out specifics of federal special education law and provide supporting data tables. Click on the links below to learn more.

Elizabeth Williams and MaryBeth Musumeci. January 21, 2022. The intersection of Medicaid, special education service delivery, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved January 3, 2022 from https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-intersection-of-medicaid-special-education-service-delivery-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/ .

Bonnie O'Keefe, Hailly T.N. Korman, and Indira Dammu. October 21, 2021. Missing in the margins 2021: Revisiting the COVID-19 attendance crisis. Bellwether Educational Partners. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://bellwethereducation.org/publication/missing-margins-estimating-scale-covid-19-attendance-crisis#2021 .

Anya Kamenetz. May 27, 2020. Survey shows big remote learning gaps for low-income and special needs children. NPR KQED. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/27/862705225/survey-shows-big-remote-learning-gaps-for-low-income-and-special-needs-children .

Ten Thousand School-based Mental Health Counselors

California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, started the New Year resolved to bring 10,000 additional mental health counselors to school districts and college campuses. Melissa Gomez at the LA Times reported on comments made by Thurmond during his visit to a south Los Angeles high school in January. A measure, referred to as the Counselor Effort and projected to cost $250 million, is expected to be introduced to legislators within weeks. The article describes the measure as an effort “to entice clinicians into schools through loan forgiveness and deferrals, scholarships to offset education costs and potentially reduce the time it takes for mental health clinicians to get licensed.”

Referring to skyrocketing demand for school-based counselors, Thurmond told the LA Times that “I can’t think of anything more important right now in terms of dealing with the trauma that students and families have experienced [due to the COVID-19 pandemic]. But the reality is that there is a shortage, there just aren’t enough counselors at many schools and many communities, urban, suburban, rural.”

Thurmond’s Counselor Effort will be welcome news to practitioners. In October, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared a National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. The declaration called for swift action to address longstanding workforce shortages. Click on the links below to learn more.

Melissa Gomez. January 5, 2022. State seeks to speed credentials for 10,000 direly needed school mental health counselors. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 23, 2022 from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-05/mental-health-crisis-counselors-pandemic .

Ileana Najarro. January 5, 2022. Why school counselors of color matter more than ever. Education Week. Retrieved January 23, 2022 from https://www.edweek.org/leadership/why-school-counselors-of-color-matter-more-than-ever/2022/01 .

Mark Kreidler. January 28, 2022. Colleges in California, across US struggle to recruit therapists for students in crisis. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article257781493.html#storylink=cpy .

California School-Based Heath Alliance. January 12, 2022. State funding for school-based health centers. Retrieved January 25, 2022 from http://www.schoolhealthcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/State-Funding-for-SBHCs-12-2021.pdf .

Zaidee Stavely. January 28, 2022. Education Secretary urges more tutoring, mental health support. EdSource. Retrieved January 30, 2022 from https://edsource.org/news-updates#education-secretary-urges-more-tutoring-mental-health-support . [Secretary Thurmond’s speech can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45R0HG0PDM4 ]

New Law on Mental Health Curriculum Goes into Effect

A recent article published in CalMatters by Carolyn Jones shines a spotlight on Senate Bill 224, which went into effect on January 1st of this year. The new law requires school health curricula to include mental health learning. Although health curricula are not mandated by the Department of Education, roughly 60% of the state’s high schools have them, covering topics such as nutrition, first aid and safety, sexual health, positive relationships, and substance abuse. Under SB 224, those students will soon learn about depression, schizophrenia, mood disorders, post traumatic stress disorder, and other serious mental health conditions. They will also learn how to recognize and support friends or family members who need help. In an interview with CalMatters, the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Anthony Portantino, said “That ninth-grader who’s inspired by a health class may go on to save a peer’s life.” Jones writes that the “Department of Education has until Jan. 1, 2023 to incorporate mental health into the state standards, and districts have until Jan. 1, 2024 to begin teaching the new material” noting, however, that “schools that don’t already offer health classes will not be required to add them.” Click on the links below to learn more.

Carolyn Jones. January 10, 2022. New law on mental health curriculum goes into effect with start of the new year. EdSource. Retrieved January 24, 2022 from https://edsource.org/2022/new-law-on-mental-health-curriculum-goes-into-effect-with-start-of-the-new-year/665417 .

Office of Senator Anthony Portantino, California State Senate. January 14, 2020. Portantino wants students to receive mental health education: Introduces bill to create and teach curriculum for K-12 schools. Press Release. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://namica.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/portantino_sb224_.pdf .

National Alliance on Mental Illness. March 1, 2021. Legislation spotlight: SB 224. NAMI California. Retrieved January 31, 2022 from https://namica.org/legislation-spotlight-sb-224/ .

Margaret Mangan, YMA Digital Communications Coordinator
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