Of the 55 million students who attend U.S. schools, 46 percent will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime. And one in five of our young people live with a mental health condition, but less than half receive treatment. These are staggering statistics that speak volumes about an epidemic facing our school children, especially… Continue reading Mental Illness in Our Schools: A National Crisis
Today is the last day of Mental Health Awareness Month so I’m sharing this story of my younger sister Carla. A different version appeared on New Jersey Left Behind and this one was first published at Education Post. My parents, Jerry and Emily, had three daughters. I’m the oldest, followed by Carla two years later, and… Continue reading My Sister’s Battle With Mental Illness Taught Me Never to Stand for Pretense.
I have written about John W. Lavelle Prep Charter in Staten Island before. I helped start it as a middle school, built on the crazy idea that you must integrate students with mental health challenges with the general population for them to be successful. Mind you, these students tend to have the highest dropout rate of… Continue reading A Different Kind of Integration: Bringing Students With Mental Health Challenges Into Our School and Watching Them Thrive
