In the fall, students and staff will return to school with collective trauma, higher anxiety levels and more stress after dealing with everything from child abuse and neglect to unemployment and loss of life.

As our nation endures an unprecedented realignment of daily life, young people absorb their parents’ tensions, but also contend with pressures of their own. They may have lost contact with friends, had to deal with canceled graduations and athletics and performing arts performances for which they have been preparing for years, and the fear that their futures may be compromised. In assessing the social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, psychologists speculate that most kids will fall between the extremes of derailing or flourishing.

While school districts send students academic lessons via cyberspace or paper packet, they are providing just part of the school experience children need. For example, between the ages of six and 12, quarantined students are missing out on learning such things as  how to play with each other in games, sports, and other activities; as well as how to make and keep friends. Between the ages of 10 and 18, students need school. The buildings themselves feel like a home base and are symbolic of a formality and structure students lose by being socially distant.

School is the setting for important activities and vital milestones. It is the place where children develop their sense of identity, and a source of impetus for the future.

The mental health resources, other community partnerships, and relationships built with families during this time serve as an important part of reentry planning, and those same relationships will help when the time comes for re-orientation to the new school environment. 

Thus, a renewed focus on SEL ​must strive onward when students are back in school. 

To help, federal funds from the CARES stimulus package are working their way into school coffers. It is hoped that there will be ample flexibility to allow them to be purposed for counseling and other supports. 

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