Subject:
Urge your lawmakers to put a nurse in every school and set real mental health staffing standards.
Message:
Dear Legislator:
As a constituent who cares deeply about protecting our children’s physical and mental wellbeing, I urge you to pass S.5024 (Jackson)/A.610 (Gonzalez-Rojas) to direct the State Education Department, in conjunction with mental health stakeholders, to establish health and mental health professional-to-student ratios in all public schools.
New York is facing a student mental health crisis right now that was exacerbated by the pandemic. Every day, children come into classrooms carrying the weight of systemic traumas such as poverty, homelessness, unaddressed health concerns, lack of basic hygiene products, and exposure to domestic and community violence. These traumas affect a child’s capacity for learning, creativity, and reaching their full potential.
Collective Care Teams — school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists and school social workers — play an integral role in caring for students’ mental and physical health in ways that often go unseen. These professionals are not interchangeable. They work together within clearly defined roles to address the full range of student needs.
But they are being stretched too thin; juggling overwhelming caseloads while trying to meet increasingly complex needs.
Every school needs proper staffing standards. Legislation S.5024 (Jackson)/A.610 (Gonzalez-Rojas) would establish proper professional-to-student ratios for health and mental health staff across all public schools.
Our public schools are uniquely positioned to identify concerns early and continue to be the most consistent point of access for care, but only if adequately staffed and empowered to do this work.
Thank you for your consideration of this important issue. I respectfully ask that you bring up this issue with your conference, and I would greatly appreciate a response to this email.
Sincerely,
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