We adults and youth have all experienced a common stress with the pandemic.

Mental health issues, including social isolation, anxiety and depression, increased.

Across the nation, suicide among adults and youth has risen. Yes, we have seen impact with our students in Lexington 1.

We were prepared to address these issues as we returned to school and continue to monitor those efforts daily.

The district established a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) taskforce. Every school was required to conduct SEL check-ins with their students to see how they were dealing with stress. Teachers provided SEL activities in the classroom. School counselors followed up with students identified by teachers and contacted parents when needed.

SEL started before the pandemic ever occurred. Mental health issues were already increasing before the pandemic.

The State Department of Education identified that learning is impacted by socialemotional issues. It aligns with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

If a student is focused on lower needs, such as psychological, safety or belonging, those needs have to be met before a student is able to learn at their full potential.

In 2019, our school counseling department established Mental Wellness Teams at all schools chaired by counselors.

The teams served as safety nets to ensure students and families had the support needed including referrals to outside agencies.

We continued the teams as a triage mechanism when we returned to school.

Counselors can provide brief, solution based counseling of usually 30 minutes, once a week lasting four to six weeks. They do not provide long-term, therapeutic counseling.

Our district worked with community agencies to bridge this assistance.

We have Lexington County Community Mental Health counselors in each school.

We have a partners in Life Changes, Family Guidance and Wellness, for intensive mental health counseling for students and families. Sexual Trauma of the Midlands counsels victims of sexual abuse.

In March, we partnered with the Dickerson Children‘s Advocacy Center. Next year, they will help Mental Wellness Teams with community options, serve as a bridge between multiple agencies and help students with isolation, anxiety and depression.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has provided Zoom lessons for our students. Mental health is also addressed during our health lessons.

Next year, we will start a SEL screener for grades 3 to 12 for students who need follow up and give feedback to parents.

An adult SEL screener will be provided to our staff and our human resources department started a new employee assistance program this year which provides free counseling and other services to our staff.

Even with all this, we need parents and the community to help. Social media is playing a major role. Parents need to be aware of what their children are reading, seeing and talking about on social media.

We are all in this together.

Zan Tracy Pender serves as Lexington 1 School Counseling and Advisement Director