The Sandy Hook panel created by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy to devise recommendations to prevent further school tragedies released its report last month. In the area of mental health, the panel recommended that interventions and systems of care designed to provide early and more comprehensive help to children with mental health needs to be developed. Just as special education emerged in the 1970s in the wake of racial violence and civil rights legislation, we are currently in a unique position to create better mental health services for children in schools from the ground up. Schools and health professionals screen children for diseases and special learning needs as they enter school. These measures have served to improve public health and prevent school failure. In the wake of the Sandy Hook School tragedy, we need to take a step further and add early and better mental health screening for children, particularly for more silent disorders such as anxiety and depression. Schools currently certify school counselors, family therapists, nurses, psychologists and social workers to practice in schools. But few schools currently employ sufficient staff to meet and coordinate the mental health needs of students to help them achieve across their school careers.
We need to develop an “educational home” in schools, where children spend the bulk of their time away from their families. Investing in more health/mental health teams in schools can improve the identification and coordination of services for children as well as promote better home, school and community partnerships to boost achievement. Supporting children and families who are at-risk early can prevent untold tragedy as well as unspeakable costs later. We have the skeletal structure for mental health services already in place in Connecticut schools. We need to add organs and muscles to that structure to improve the life experience of children in education.

Dr. Laundy is the author of the book Building School-Based Collaborative Mental Health Teams: A Systems Approach to Student Achievement, TPI Press, In press.