How mental health affects students

Student mental well-being is continuing to worsen. 40% of school-aged students report persistent depressive symptoms, while 20% consider serious self-harm. As school communities debate the cause of increasing mental health issues among students, all agree on one thing: schools must proactively provide support.

Supporting students starts with understanding how mental health conditions affect the various areas of their lives. Read on as we cover how mental health affects students and eight practical strategies that K-12 schools can adopt to improve students’ mental health outcomes.

Understanding how mental health affects students

Mental health affects students in multiple areas, including academic success, classroom engagement, social relationships, and physical well-being.

Students struggling with anxiety disorders often earn lower test scores. They are also twice as likely to fail a grade. Serious emotional or behavioral mental disorders also lead to more chronic absenteeism and higher dropout rates, with only about 40% of affected students graduating high school compared to approximately 76% of their peers.

Children who experience mental health challenges often experience physical symptoms, commonly including headaches, stomachaches, and fatigue. These mental health problems can also disrupt healthy routines: affected students frequently have sleep disturbances, appetite changes, and low energy.

Moreover, affected students are at higher risk for harmful behaviors, including substance abuse. 

There’s a call for schools to step in, where they can. As the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) noted, “Undiagnosed, untreated or inadequately treated mental illnesses can significantly interfere with a student’s ability to learn, grow and develop. Since children spend much of their productive time in educational settings, schools offer a unique opportunity for early identification, prevention, and interventions that serve students where they already are.” 

Addressing student mental health concerns: Strategies for K-12 schools 

K-12 schools are proactively working to address growing mental health concerns. For example, Arbor Park Schools adopted ManagedMethods’ Cloud Monitor to detect early warning signs of self-harm, cyberbullying, and other student-safety risks. 

As Arbor Park School’s CTO David Termunde noted, “Cloud Monitor is proactive and easy to use, compared to Microsoft’s native tools that are more reactive… We used to have to investigate an issue that we already knew about, and had to try to find information related to the problem. Now, Cloud Monitor gives us a heads-up that something is happening so we can get ahead of it before it’s a problem.”

Technology plays a central role in creating a safe online environment that supports student mental well-being. Alongside tech-driven solutions, K-12 schools can take additional steps by adopting the following eight strategies. 

1. Train teachers and school staff to recognize and respond to mental health needs

Teachers are often first responders for student mental health issues. However, many educators report feeling inadequately trained to address these concerns. Schools can partner with mental health institutions to offer staff insights into how to best recognize and respond to mental health needs. 

Training should go hand-in-hand with clear school policy. This includes referral protocols with clearly defined steps to connect at-risk students to counselors, social workers, community services, or families.

2. Support staff well-being

Cared-for staff members are better positioned to help at-risk students. Staff support commonly includes employee assistance programs and structured wellness initiatives. Increasingly, it also includes designated mental health days. 

Schools that adopt these initiatives take meaningful steps toward cultivating a healthier work climate and model positive self-care for students. Stronger staff resilience leads to more consistent and empathetic student support. Plus, when staff recognize their own stressors, they become better at identifying and addressing similar struggles among students.

3. Implement universal mental health screenings

Universal mental health screening refers to systematically evaluating all students for signs of emotional, behavioral, or psychological difficulties. Schools typically conduct screenings using evidence-based surveys or questionnaires administered periodically to students. This aims to identify student mental health problems early—even among students who may not display obvious symptoms.

To administer universal mental health screenings, schools first select research-based assessment tools that align with their student population. They then train designated staff to administer the screeners consistently and interpret the results accurately. Finally, they set clear protocols for privacy, data handling, and timely referrals when concerns arise. Parents should be informed and consent to any screening initiatives. 

4. Integrate social-emotional learning into the curriculum

Social-emotional learning (SEL) helps schools systematically teach emotional regulation, healthy relationships, and ethical decision-making. Its frameworks group skills into five domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Schools that implement evidence-based SEL programs raise academic achievement by 11%. They also create safer, more positive climates that support mental well-being: one district recorded 43% fewer discipline referrals and significant reductions in aggressive and disruptive behavior.

5. Increase students’ mental health literacy

Schools can facilitate mental health awareness and literacy by:

• Teaching students to accurately identify symptoms of mental health concerns.
• Explaining clearly how students can access mental health services within the school and community.
• Providing practical instruction on evidence-based stress-reduction techniques, with input from mental health service providers.
• Introducing structured peer discussions to normalize conversations around mental health concerns.
• Incorporating evidence-based mental health education consistently into existing health classes.

Schools can also audit instructional materials for clinical accuracy and align terminology across subjects. They should update resources annually to match current guidelines. Partnering with a mental health professional or organization can help schools keep materials clinically accurate. 

6. Promote mindfulness practices for students

Researchers associate mindfulness with reduced anxiety disorders, improved emotional regulation, and enhanced attention. Notably, they also associate it with academic success.

Mindfulness training in schools significantly reduces anxiety in students. An eight-week mindfulness program led sixth-graders to feel less stressed and to show reduced fear responses. Schools can train staff on how to lead mindfulness training in class. Or, they can partner with external mindfulness specialists to more easily deliver structured, evidence-based programs school-wide.

7. Foster connectedness among students, staff, and families

Schools must align staff, students, and their families on all mental health policies and initiatives. Schools that are aligned with families are better positioned to support student mental well-being. 

This includes regularly communicating mental health strategies through family-focused email newsletters. Notably, it also includes creating structured opportunities—whether online forums or in-person school events—for direct dialogue among students, parents, and educators about mental health priorities.

8. Provide school-based mental health services

Schools often place counselors and psychologists on campus. In fact, 96% of public schools offer at least one mental health service. This allows students to easily meet a trusted professional. Of the schools that offer a mental health service, 49% provide diagnostic assessments and 38% deliver treatment on site. 

However, if needs exceed on-site expertise and capacity, staff commonly guide families to vetted community providers. It’s for this reason that schools actively initiate formal referral partnerships with mental health service providers. 

Take the next step with ManagedMethods

Cloud Monitor by ManagedMethods provides real-time monitoring of student cloud activity. Using artificial intelligence (AI), it detects early signals of mental health risks, whether related to self-harm, suicidality, cyberbullying, or other threats. These immediate alerts allow school staff to intervene quickly, ensuring early intervention and involving counselors when needed.

The platform complies with student data privacy laws—including FERPA and COPPA—ensuring sensitive information is protected. Together, these features foster a safer school environment focused on student mental health and well-being.

As Justin Feltus, Systems Specialist at Bremerton School District, noted: “We have GoGuardian to manage students on a browser level. But it’s not even in the same ballpark as Cloud Monitor. Cloud Monitor is the forensics tool that I use to get Google Workspace information our campus safety team needs to properly follow up with potential issues and incidents.”

He continued, “Cloud Monitor is an invaluable tool for keeping our Google environment and, to a degree, our campus a safe place for students to thrive. Having this level of visibility and control is a huge benefit.”

Learn how Cloud Monitor can help you create a safer, more secure environment. 

The post How mental health affects students appeared first on ManagedMethods Cybersecurity, Safety & Compliance for K-12.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ManagedMethods Cybersecurity, Safety & Compliance for K-12 authored by Alexa Sander. Read the original post at: https://managedmethods.com/blog/how-mental-health-affects-students/