On Tuesday, December 7, 2021,  in a rare warning and call to action to address an emerging crisis exacerbated by pandemic hardships, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory on the mental health challenges confronting the nation’s youth. He reported that symptoms of depression and anxiety have doubled during the pandemic, with 25% of youth experiencing depressive symptoms and 20% experiencing anxiety symptoms. There also appear to be increases in negative emotions or behaviors such as impulsivity and irritability, which are symptoms of ADHD and other similar conditions.

The 53-page advisory also shows early 2021 emergency department visits across the country for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher for adolescent girls and 4% higher for adolescent boys as compared to the same time period in early 2019.

According to Murthy, “It would be a tragedy if we beat back one public health crisis only to allow another to grow in its place.”

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times.

Please click here to read the article.

On December 2, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) launched two new multi-state communities of practice to support states in addressing the impact of lost instructional time from the pandemic on students’ social, emotional, and mental health, and academic well-being. “Students across the country have felt the impact of school building closures as a result of the pandemic. While the good news is that nearly 100 percent of America’s schools have now returned to in-person instruction, we must provide the necessary supports to nurture all students’ social-emotional well-being, mental health, and positive academic outcomes by addressing the impact of lost instructional time,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “I’m proud that these new communities of practice, supporting the use of American Rescue Plan funds, will help states engage in this vital work.”

The USDE is launching the Evidence-Based Interventions: Using American Rescue Plan Resources to Accelerate Learning Community of Practice with the National Comprehensive Center. This community of practice will work with states and communities in accelerating learning using American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding in sustainable ways. The USDE will invite teams of State Educational Agencies (SEAs), Local Education Agencies (LEAs), and partner community-based organizations (CBOs) to participate in the community of practice. Participants will explore different evidence-based strategies to accelerate learning and build their organizational capacity to support districts and schools in implementing these practices with fidelity, using the ARP Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds for evidence-based interventions such as high-dosage tutoring and expanded learning time. This community of practice will address students’ needs by equipping local educators, school staff, partners, and leaders with the skills they need to design and deploy interventions that work for all students to recover lost instructional time, with a focus on students most impacted by the pandemic.

The USDE is also launching the Toward an Equitable Education and Recovery: Transforming Kindergarten Community of Practice in partnership with the Campaign for Grade Level Reading and the USDE’s T4PA Center, among other partners. This community of practice will engage a cohort of state and district teams to share best practices, policies, and initiatives that will allow the kindergarten year to become a more effective path to early school success and learning recovery, especially for those children who have been historically underserved and most adversely affected by the ongoing pandemic. The community of practice will consist of a series of virtual convenings on topics such as social-emotional development, family engagement and supportive transitions that respond to disparities in access to in-person learning and nationwide under-enrollment for young children.

In addition, the USDE will continue to support states who participated in the Summer Learning and Enrichment Collaborative (SLEC) through the Strategic Use of Summer and Afterschool Set-Asides Community of Practice. This series will support state teams and their partners in promoting strategic and sustainable use of ARP funding to accelerate learning through summer and out of school time programming. This community of practice will build on the success from the SLEC, which brought together 49 SEAs across eight total events that reached more than 1,300 participants.

The communities of practice are the USDE’s most recent efforts to support families by addressing the impact of lost instructional time. This fall, the USDE released “Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time,” a resource to support educators as they implement, refine, and work to continuously improve their strategies for supporting students.

For m ore information from the USDE, click here.

As a result of collaborative efforts between NASISP, NAPSA, and a coalition of  other like-minded national organizations, a joint letter has been sent to urge the US Senate to move as quickly as possible to pass an FY2022 appropriations bill that helps address the severe shortages of school-based mental health professionals (school psychologists, school counselors, and school social workers) and other specialized instructional support personnel. The letter urges the Senate to pass FY2022 Appropriations legislation that contains, at a minimum, $800 million for the School Based Mental Health Services Professionals and School Based Mental Health Services grants, combined, and at least $250 million for the IDEA personnel development grants.

PAPSA is an affiliate of NAPSA and many PAPSA members have taken a joint PAPSA-NAPSA membership at a discounted rate.

To view the letter, click here.

The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) firmly supports the nomination of Glenna Gallo to be the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) at the U.S. Department of Education (USDE).
Ms. Gallo has twice served as President of NASDSE — and has a wealth of experience in working with children, youth and adults with disabilities and their families. She has dedicated her entire professional career to ensuring that all students with disabilities are held to high levels of achievement and that the necessary supports and services are available to meet their needs. She has worked with stakeholders in the disability community at the local, state, and national levels and has gained a reputation for valuing their input through an authentic stakeholder process and ensuring equity for all students.
Since 2017, Ms. Gallo has served as the Assistant Superintendent of Special Education in Washington state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Prior to that, she spent seven years as the State Director of Special Education for the Utah State Board of Education, following work as a classroom teacher and administrator.
She has more than 25 years of public education experience supporting students with disabilities and adults entering and within the teaching profession, and 16 years of experience in the state-level educational leadership with expertise in the improvement planning, data analysis, and monitoring of public preK-12+ special education programs.
Collaboration is a priority for her work. Ms. Gallo feels strongly that application of the intent of IDEA requirements results in increased student outcomes for students with disabilities and works with school and district administrators, special education staff, advocates, and parents/families of students with disabilities at the local, state and national levels to review research, current student achievement data, stakeholder feedback, and compliance data to ensure all efforts address instructional issues that impact results for students with disabilities.

-Courtesy of NASDE-