04.20.2020 | Nouvèl chak jou NY | “We have to do things differently,” said Dawn Yuster, the director of the School Justice Project at Advocates for Children, one of dozens of organizations that sent a letter Friday to the city Education Department sounding the alarm on mental health services.

“The public health crisis is hopefully going to shine a light on the fact that we cannot continue to treat students the way we have in our schools.”

Yuster and her colleagues are proposing a $15 million investment to launch school partnerships with local hospitals. The initiative would give schools a hotline to call to help de-escalate crises, and would send mental health clinicians to schools and students’ homes for counseling. Li atik