What Are You Seeing in Seattle Schools Around Students and Stress?

 Great article from September 2021, Stress and short tempers: Schools struggle with behavior as students return, from the Chalkbeat blog (all bold mine):

Schools across the country say they’re seeing an uptick in disruptive behaviors. Some are obvious and visible, like students trashing bathrooms, fighting over social media posts, or running out of classrooms. Others are quieter calls for help, like students putting their head down and refusing to talk.

“This is a prolonged adjustment period,” said Dr. Tali Raviv, the associate director of the Center for Childhood Resilience at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. As children return to school, “There’s much more interaction, there’s much less downtime to recharge, there’s much less flexibility.”

The behavior issues are a reflection of the stress the pandemic placed on children, experts say, upending their education, schedules, and social lives. For students dealing with grief, mental health issues, or the layered effects of poverty and racism, big transitions can be even more challenging.

Coupled with staff exhaustion, the behavior challenges are making school environments more tense than educators and students had anticipated — and underscoring how much support students need right now.

When COVID first hit, I had truly thought that those in charge would spring into action to save our country from a long heartache. I was certainly wrong. I had hoped that kids would not have to be in a long state of uncertainty and transition. That did not happen.

So between the two pillars of school life - academics and social - students are not doing well.

What do the kids say?

“Everybody is off in their own little la la land. It’s like we just go there, get to class, get out of the class, go home,” said Johnson, who’s also a member of Houston’s student-led congress. During group projects in class, teachers have to urge students to talk with one another. “It’s like we’ve forgotten how to socialize since we’ve been out of school for so long.”

Among teachers of younger students, it’s not uncommon to hear that students seem two grade levels behind socially. Educators have noticed that elementary schoolers who spent much of the last two years learning online are — to no one’s surprise — struggling to share and walk slowly in the hallway.

And then there are the impacts on teachers:

Complicating how schools are responding to disruptive behavior is the fact that many educators are on edge, too. Staff shortages and quarantines have stretched teachers thin, leaving many with less of the patience needed to de-escalate student conflicts. Some say they’re already as tired as they’d typically be by Thanksgiving.

“Normally we are really energized and rocking and rolling at the end of September,” said Roxanne James, the principal of Jerome Mack Middle School in Las Vegas. This year, staffers are already exhausted. “They’re being asked to be those emotional supports for kids, for their families, for each other,” she said. “And they themselves have gone through the trauma of the pandemic.”

What about ESSA dollars (The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) authorizes significant funds to help increase the capacity of states, local educational agencies (LEAs), schools, and local communities to provide all students with access to a well-rounded education and to improve school conditions for student learning.)

Schools are making changes meant to help, often with the help of COVID relief funding. Missoula County schools in Montana, for example, hired a dozen additional staffers to focus on student behavior and mental health. Now they have staff at every elementary and middle school to teach coping strategies to kids who are getting frustrated quickly.

I would like every single district to be required to account - in detail - for every ESSA dollar. How is it Missoula schools made it work to have staff at every elementary and middle school to teach coping strategies?

I really like this coping idea:

Brown’s school in Detroit adjusted schedules this year so every morning begins with 15 minutes students can spend on deep breathing, discussing something in the news, or venting about personal stress.

“The needs are different than in a typical year because there’s such a high level of grief,” Brown said. “If they don’t have the opportunity to talk it out, they’ll act it out.”

I found this part of the article very moving: 

One day earlier this month, Schmidt was making coffee when she saw another staff member consoling a former student sobbing in the hallway. She took the eighth grade boy under her arm, walked with him outside, and listened.

“Don’t we all sometimes just need a safe person to walk with?” Schmidt said. “A lot of our kids need that right now.”

What are you seeing at your school?