Students today are in the middle of a mental health crisis. The Surgeon General identified mental health as the leading cause of disability and negative life outcomes for young people. At the same time, U.S. teachers experience frequent symptoms of depression more than twice as often as the general adult population.
Schools are uniquely positioned to address these challenges. They nurture the well-being of both students and staff, creating an environment conducive to learning and growth. Transcend’s Leaps for Equitable, 21st Century Learning outlines key ways to transform the student experience, preparing young people to thrive. Supporting student and adult mental health is a core aspect of the Whole Child Leap. This Leap advocates shifting from a purely academic focus to fostering the entire student—their cognitive, emotional, social, and physical aspects.
New Whitepaper from Education Forward DC and Transcend
Supporting Student and Staff Well-Being: School Pilots in Action explores what four public schools in the District of Columbia learned through piloting different approaches to supporting student and staff mental health and well-being.
Explore Mental Health Resources
School Models that Support Mental Health
Learn more from innovative schools that are not only building social-emotional skills, but are also addressing students’ greater context and realities, to make the Whole Child Leap (and are improving student academic outcomes in the process).
Supporting staff Mental Health
Transcend believes that happy and healthy adults are the foundation for safe and supportive learning environments. Partnering with innovative schools, we recognize the powerful connection between adult well-being and student success. When educators feel secure and cared for, they create similar environments for children. By investing in adult well-being, schools can create a ripple effect, fostering emotional regulation, stress management, and conflict resolution skills across the entire school community, including students and families.
Staff Mental Health Resources
Build Adult Capacity and Culture
This 2-pager offers research, guidance, and resources to begin building adults’ own social-emotional competence so they can maintain and model wellbeing for students.
Mental Health Lenses: A Framework to Examine and Focus Your School Design
This tool can help schools use three drivers of mental health as sharpening lenses to examine their current design and further focus on mental health.
The Daily SEL Leader: Why SEL for Leaders is Essential
This SEL for School Leaders series webinar focuses on how and why SEL for leaders can influence the “emotional path,” centering on leaders’ self-competencies.
School Leaders and SEL: The Self-Competencies
This SEL for School Leaders webinar explains the importance of SEL for leaders and offers strategies to help leaders begin to understand themselves better.
School Leaders and SEL: Social Awareness
The third and final SEL for Leaders webinar will readdress why SEL is critical for influencing key organizational outcomes like trust, efficacy, and wellness.
Breathe for Change
In this webinar, learn how educators, leaders, and parents can use mindfulness practices to promote learner’s well-being in addition to their own.
Supporting Student Mental Health
Students today face a growing mental health crisis, with rising diagnoses and feelings of isolation. Educators and parents are rightly concerned. Schools can be a powerful support system. Transcends’ resources aim to equip adults to better address student well-being in a holistic way, making it a core outcome alongside college and career readiness.
Student Mental Health Resources
Mental Health Trend Cards
These cards explore current trends related to mental health in order to provoke thinking about the implications for schools.
Recovery through Relationships: 5 Design Steps for Strengthening and Building Students’ Networks
This webinar shares school design and measurement insights to help support students’ relationships with peers, educators, mentors, and community members across their schools and programs.
Along: New Tool to Support Child Development
This webinar discusses the barriers educators face when taking a Whole Child approach and shares resources and strategies proven to support the Whole Child approach.
Develop Social-Emotional Competencies
Building social and emotional competencies like self-awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills can support student mental health.
Foster Supportive Relationships
Supportive relationships with adults and peers buffer against stress, help students explore their identities, and support skill and mindset development.
Incorporate Physical Wellness
Learning environments can support mental health by also focusing on physical health.
Create a Safe School Environment
School communities can promote wellness and healthy development by providing an environment where students feel psychologically and physically safe.
Advocating for Better Mental Health Outcomes for Students
Schools have an important role to play in supporting student mental health and well-being. As a partner to communities in designing excellent and equitable learning environments, Transcend believes we must engage all levers—from design to policy—in creating caring schools that support the whole child.
