Remote learning, mental health on legislative agenda for educators
During the upcoming 2022 legislative session, Connecticut lawmakers intend to tackle two of the biggest pandemic-related issues impacting schools and children: a mental health crisis and remote learning standards.
With the two-year COVID-19 pandemic taking a massive toll on children’s mental health, lawmakers have been discussing for months how to address what experts agree is a health care crisis.
Legislators have hosted forums with behavioral health professionals, state officials and child experts to discuss how the children’s mental health crisis has led to overwhelmed pediatric emergency rooms. They have also examined which improvements to behavioral health services need to be made in school districts and surrounding communities throughout the state.
While leaders on the Education and Children’s committees say improving mental health and social-emotional resources for children will be one of the substantive issues they address during the session, they also plan to propose establishing remote learning standards and diversifying and retaining the teacher workforce in Connecticut.
Educators and state officials have expressed repeated concerns about the impact remote learning has had on students over the course of the pandemic. In a study released last winter of nine high schools in historically struggling districts, the RISE Network found that the percentage of students in danger of failing had doubled since the previous year.
These challenges with remote learning make it imperative to establish some standards for its use, lawmakers said.
Getting a ‘better handle’ on mental health care
During a press conference last month to discuss the crisis in children’s mental health and drug use in schools, Children’s Committee leaders vowed to push legislation to address drug use among adolescents this legislative session that would fully fund an “adolescent expert” or A-SBIRT program.
Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, co-chair of the Children’s Committee, said the program is similar to a pilot program she introduced in her district that trains adults on how to intervene if they think a child is using opioids and can help them detect early signs of drug use.
The program would be available to staff at schools, youth agencies, and local health districts.
“The bill will be a train-thetrainer model which will ultimately imbed trainers around the state who can then continue to train others, making it the most cost efficient and long-term way to introduce training programs that support children,” Linehan said in a statement. “It’s important that we not only supply our schools and youth organizations with the tools to treat drug overdoses, but with the proposer staffing and training to recognize drug use in its early stages and support young people before things worsen.”
Legislators have also described the mental health crisis among children as one of the most pressing priorities this session, and Linehan will be co-authoring what is expected to be an omnibus bill that ties in proposals ranging from recruitment and retention efforts in the field to resources in schools and hospitals.
The Education Committee is also planning to head into the session with mental health as a top priority.
Committee Co-chair Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, said socialemotional learning is at “the top-level” for members of the committee, who want to better understand how the trauma children have experienced over the last two years has affected their social development.
“It’s not just in the school — the kids are only in school for about 7-8 hours. Those resources also have to be in the community,” McCrory said. “We have to work with those kids before they walk into the building. We’ve got to work on those families before they even walk into the building. So it’s important that those resources are provided in those communities that need it, in all communities.”
Remote learning
During the 2021 legislative session, the General Assembly passed legislation aimed at changing remote learning standards that would be in place by the next school year.
Recently, the state Department of Education discussed a draft for permanent remote learning standards that could go into effect for high school students next year, according to the CT Post. But the conversation is expected to continue throughout the session, with recommendations for legislation.
A remote learning commission has been tasked with providing recommendations to lawmakers.
During a recent state board of education meeting, Commissioner of Education Charlene RussellTucker explained the purpose of developing standards is to guide the design of remote learning environments for students in grades 9-12.
“As required by the legislation, districts can start offering remote learning opportunities to students in grades 9-12 for the upcoming year based on standards that are developed,” she said. “So the first part of these standards is to get to the remote learning commission to get feedback.”
McCrory said considering recommendations from the remote learning commission will be one of the priorities for the Education Committee.
“I would like for the kids to stay in class. However, because of this variant, we know there’s a large number of staff who were not coming in, and that’s going to affect our children,” he said. “Personally, I believe either we are going to be all in or all out. I don’t think we should move toward a hybrid model like we did last year.”
Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, sees “tremendous possibilities” for the state to have standards for remote learning but added that the standards should be focused on the type of remote learning being offered.