By Rep. Valerie Longhurst
Take a look at any public school across Delaware, and you’ll find teachers, administrators and support staff doing amazing things for students every day. Whether in the classroom or through remote instruction, educators are doing more than ever to guide their students to success, even in these unprecedented times.
But even the best teacher can struggle to reach a child when serious personal challenges lie below the surface. Challenges like the aftermath of a traumatic incident at home or violence in their community. Joblessness. Hunger. Homelessness. Depression.
These are things a classroom teacher can’t see and probably doesn’t know about that student. But she might see shadows in missed homework, a sudden drop in grades, acting out in class or playground fights.
It’s the school guidance counselor’s job to identify those underlying issues and work to help that student overcome them, especially at an early age. But over the years, we simply have not given counselors the support they need to do those things.
That’s why I introduced legislation to finally dedicate real resources to school mental health services.