Supporting the well-being of educators, students and families is a key finding from the Prichard Committee’s Coping with Covid Survey Results from 2020. This resource page highlights professional development tools, mental health resources, and social-emotional learning frameworks, that support a whole person approach to teaching and learning.
In our K-12 and higher education surveys, the need for more mental health supports for students, educators and families was a prevalent theme.
- 35% of high school students surveyed said that they wanted mental health services, but didn’t have access to them.
- 36% of teachers said they wanted more access to mental health services.
- 21% of families said they would benefit from more mental health services.
- 74% of current college students said they have felt an increase of mental or emotional exhaustion due to COVID-19.
In our college survey, despite respondents reporting increasing mental health issues, more (12%) indicated accessing mental health services less frequently than more frequently (8%) compared to before COVID-19.
- 13% reported they were not at all aware of mental health resources offered by their institution.
- 11% reported they had trouble accessing services.
Fostering the physical and mental health of school employees also helps to support students’ health and academic success. Every school employee, no matter the role they play, contributes to a school’s mission. School staff can give their best when they feel their best. School employee wellness programs can help.
– CDC
The mental health of children is connected to their parents’ mental health. Fathers and mothers—and other caregivers who have the role of parent—need support, which, in turn, can help them support their children’s mental health.
– CDC
Schools have direct contact with more than 95% of our nation’s young people aged 5 to 17 years, for about 6 hours per day and up to 13 critical years of their social, psychological, physical, and intellectual development. Schools play an important role in promoting the health and safety of children and adolescents by helping them to establish lifelong health patterns.
– CDC
- Steps to address challenging behaviors in children
- Practices for developing students’ social and emotional well-being, ethical decision-making skills, kindness, gratitude, and other prosocial qualities
- Healthy Schools guidance from the CDC
- Sources of Strength: Youth suicide prevention project
- Advancing Adult Compassion Resilience: Compassion Resilience Toolkit
- Youth Mental Health First Aid
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports from the Kentucky Department of Education
- Youth Mental Health | PBS LearningMedia
- University of Kentucky Center on Trauma and Children
- Supportive School Climates That Foster Students’ Social, Emotional, and Academic Development – The Education Trust
- Youth Mental Health First Aid
- Trauma-Informed Care | The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (nctsn.org)
- National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) | University of Maryland School of Medicine
- Social and Emotional Learning (wallacefoundation.org)
- Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, Clemson University
- U.S. Surgeon General’s Youth Mental Health Advisory
Data resources to help address your school and community needs.
- Kentucky Incentives for Prevention Survey
- Kentucky School Climate Snapshot (2017)
- Learn About Education School Climate Surveys
- The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences, nationally, by state, and by race or ethnicity
- 2020 Impact Kentucky School Working Conditions Survey
- Center on Positive Behavior Intervention Supports
- The Role of Family Resource and Youth Service Centers
- Solutions & Challenges for Children’s Mental Health in the COVID-19 Pandemic – NIHCM