Students need social, emotional help more than ever

Last fall, Jon sat down to eat a snack. After seeing he had no lions in his animal cracker bag, Jon swiped his snack across the table, rose, and threw his chair against our play kitchen set.

Forty-five days into the school year, my educational assistant and I were still chasing him around the school, evacuating the classroom and running extensive interferences to avoid physical and violent outbursts, sometimes putting ourselves in harm’s way. Jon continued to struggle with controlling his temper whenever things didn’t go his way. Despite numerous changes in strategies, coping techniques, parent conferences and mounds of documentation, Jon still did not receive the help he truly needed.

As we return to school this fall, I wonder; What will our students be like? Jon struggled even with all of the help the school community provided. During COVID-19 and remote learning, this same level of help simply wasn’t available for our students. Will we, as teachers, be ready to support them? After more than five months at home, many children would have been witness to extreme family stress and anxiety, and possibly some form of domestic violence. This trauma makes a huge difference in how a student can learn in a classroom.

Even highly effective and experienced teachers need support from trained professionals such as social workers, family therapists and counselors to help their students. This support is not readily available at all schools. My school, in fact, has one counselor who divides her time between teaching classes and other duties.

Our one social worker is shared with two other schools and only works with kids who qualify for special education behavior support. This is not unique to my school and is often the norm for schools across the state. Jon was not our only student among 20 in need of additional support; we had several students on Individual Education Plans and a few of those identified with delays in social-emotional development.

We were desperately grasping at anything we could find online and through our professional networks to help our students succeed. We sought support from resources within our school and district, and we took hours and hours of professional development courses to find solutions. We were starting to get somewhere in the second semester of school and then the COVID-19 pandemic happened.

Overnight, we were scrambling to create a structure for our families to be successful at home. We called every family and gathered information on how they were doing and what they needed. We focused on connections and communicating our feelings. It was amazing to see how deep our relationships were among our students. My educational assistant and I were the constant in their lives. They knew we cared a lot, but our students and families need so much more.

Now is not the time to fall backward on the progress made toward supporting our teachers, students and their families, but rather a time to further our efforts. All teachers and administrators need more specialized training in trauma-informed practices, and we need trained professionals to help us meet the needs of our students, especially as we face the effects of COVID-19 on students’ mental and social-emotional health and wellbeing.

I call on the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Public Education Department and the Department of Health to do everything in their power to partner early in a child’s development rather than later when stressors are higher and outbursts are far worse.

Let’s work together and support student and family mental health. Our students need social-emotional support services now more than ever.

Aimee Parra is a kindergarten teacher in Las Cruces.