09.15.2020 | Center for NYC Affairs | At a time when teachers and principals are debating Covid-19 safety guidelines, scrambling to fulfil staffing mandates, planning hybrid in-class and remote learning schedules, and contesting the DOE’s assessments of windows that won’t open and HVAC systems that don’t work, the City hasn’t answered a crucial question, says Yuster from Advocates for Children: Where’s the help for students with serious mental health needs?

“We absolutely appreciate the City’s proclaimed commitment to social-emotional learning, but we haven’t seen or heard of any plans for providing direct mental health services,” Yuster says. “The City has proven they can figure out really creative way to get money to pull together trainings. Those resources should be directed toward helping students, particularly students with significant mental health challenges.”

 “If everyone involved – if all the adults in schools, in the City government, in the NYPD – if everyone could think of every interaction involving a student who has mental health needs as if it was their own child, I think we would all be doing things really differently,” Yuster continues. “We would be doing right by our students.” Read article