The legislation, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would provide grants to establish a pipeline for school-nased mental health service professionals. Additionally, it would grow the number of mental health experts at elementary and secondary schools that are based in high-need locations.
Passage of the bill comes roughly two-and-a-half years into the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made mental health conditions more widespread.
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), the sponsor of the bill, said his legislation is needed to address the ripple effect student that mental health concerns are having on schools and educators.
The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed in March that, in the first year of the pandemic, the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide grew by roughly 25%.
People with severe mental disorders pass away on average 10 to 20 years earlier than the general population, most often from preventable physical illnesses.
The 2022 KIDS COUNT Data Book, which was released in August, revealed that about 1.5 million children in the United States experienced depression or anxiety throughout the first year of the pandemic.
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