Teachers, administrators and students are looking at ways to address mental health as students return back to the classroom for the new school year.
Dr. Michael Schumacher, the new superintendent at Shawnee Mission School District, said part of the district's five year strategic plan will focus on addressing mental health.
"That's a new one for us," Schumacher told KCUR's Up To Date. "Our students really pushed us to recognize that we have a need for that within our student population, as well as our adult population."
Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Anna Stubblefield said all of their schools have social workers and behavior health specialists.
"The social emotional component, we have curriculum around it," Stubblefield said. "So it's been integral in how we have looked at students for a while."
Cellphones, which can also have a significant impact on a student's mental health and education, is another challenge the districts are navigating.
Shawnee Mission School District and Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools are still figuring out the best way to address phones at school, which Stubblefield described as a "hot issue." The Hickman Mills School District has turned to secure pouches to restrict access to cellphones during the school day.
"When the students arrive, they get to put it into this case, it gets sealed and then no access to it during classrooms," said Hickman Mills Superintendent Yaw Obeng. "And it really has decreased the amount of social media posts from classrooms."
"We want technology in the classrooms, but we want to be able to use it for learning," Obeng said.
- Dr. Michael Schumacher, superintendent, Shawnee Mission School District
- Dr. Anna Stubblefield, superintendent, Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools
- Yaw Obeng, superintendent, Hickman Mill School District