Mental health programs for students in Newark are getting a boost from the federal government. The district is getting a grant of almost $9 million to improve such services for students in the wake of the pandemic.
Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark who covers public education here.
“What we’ve seen is students just need someone to talk to, so a lot of this money could be used to implement more staff who can be available for students to talk about either problems at home or situations that are happening at school,” she said.
The district must also create a suicide awareness training policy and implement prevention programs for suicide and substance use.
The district had to submit a plan in order to get the money. It said it would develop a curriculum that reflects the cultural diversity of its students.
Gomez said the district has other plans too for serving its Black and brown students.
“The plan said that the district would develop messaging for students and create safer spaces such as after-school clubs to promote support among students of color specifically,” she said.
More than 90% of public school students in Newark identify as Black or Hispanic.
“There was a study that was released last year that basically said Black and Latino students in New Jersey have less access to school mental health staff than they did a decade ago, which again is concerning given kind of where we are at post-pandemic,” said Gomez.
Among other things the district must use the money to train staff on mental health awareness, and develop a school safety and violence prevention program.