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Dr. Jill Biden: Schools Will Need More Mental Health Resources When They Reopen

Dr. Jill Biden reminded us that students will bring all their families’ pandemic stresses with them when they return to school.

By NewsHound Ellen
05/17/20 06:00 am

Dr. Jill Biden, a lifelong educator, talked about the worries she has heard from other educators about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on schools. First, she mentioned inequities and concerns about jobs. Not just for teachers but bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other support systems.

But what Biden seemed most concerned with was mental health. Once schoolsl reopen, educators will need to “address the emotional, the social, and the intellectual well-being of our kids,” and help will be needed, she said. She hinted that it was a pre-existing need, now made more pressing by COVID-19.

BIDEN: As we see, all these kids are at home. And there's anxiety and stress that they're feeling. Many, many of our young children, our students in lower grades are food insecure. And things are happening in the home. So, there's a rise in domestic violence. So, in the fall hopefully when we go back to school, the children are going to be bringing all of this with them. And so the educators are saying to me, we need help, we need help with mental health in our schools. I have heard that for the past year as I traveled across the nation.

Fortunately for our kids and our school systems, Dr. Biden is married to a guy running for president. She said that Joe Biden has pledged to double the number of counselors and psychologists in schools to help both students and educators.
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