Combatting Mental Illness in Schools: Are Teachers Ready?

If ever there was a time school districts, principals and teachers had to worry about providing a quality education for students, it is now, at the time of this writing. Due to the Nation\u27s current state in dealing with a worldwide pandemic, the education system as a whole has suffered traumatically, both mentally and emotionally. No longer will teachers be solely responsible for providing students with the essentials necessary to be academically, emotionally, and socially successful in schools. Hundreds of thousands of students suffer from some form of mental illness within our schools. And, the teachers who service and support them are ill-prepared. Say goodbye to the times when teachers were held accountable for providing students with 100% of what they needed to become productive citizens. At this high-stakes level in schools and communities, a joint effort from each stakeholder is warranted. Mental health was an unspoken curse that went unacknowledged for centuries. But now, educators have been forced to take a deeper look into the support provided for those students, starting with the ones who have the most impact on their success, teachers. By utilizing research-based best practices and implementing meaningfully differentiated professional development for teachers, a school and classroom culture could have a tremendously positive effect