Holding Schools Responsible for Addressing Childhood Trauma
Angela Almeida The Atlantic
19 May 2015
It’s no secret that U.S. schools have a lot to work on when it comes to offering mental and emotional support for students. Whether due to budgetary constraints or ideological ones, it can be difficult establish an educational standard for how to treat psychological issues that occur outside of the classroom. Yet the supply of professionals equipped to alleviate those problems is diminishing: By 2020, the National Association of School Psychologists estimates there will be a shortage of nearly 15,000 school psychologists nationwide—a statistic that could spell a grim reality for the future of mental-health services in schools.
But not everyone agrees that a grim future is inevitable.
On Monday, a group of students and teachers in Southern California filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the Compton Unified School District. Labeled by backers to be the first-of-its-kind, this case alleges that the Compton school district has failed to sufficiently address the influence that childhood trauma can have on learning...