Researchers have long warned of a growing mental health crisis on U.S. college campuses and demand for campus counseling services rising past the capacity of many schools to keep up with it. The situation was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which isolated students at a time when social relationships are particularly important to their ability to manage the stress of college life. Download the report from Gallup and Lumina Foundation to see how college students’ personal mental and emotional health is affecting their academic career and how they feel about their institution’s mental health resources.

The Equity in Mental Health Framework provides colleges and universities with ten recommendations and implementation strategies to help inform and strengthen their mental health support and programs for students of color. The Equity in Mental Health Toolkit offers additional support in implementing the recommendations in the Equity in Mental Health Framework, including supporting campus-based efforts to reduce shame and prejudice around mental illness, increase responsiveness, improve campus climate, and provide system wide opportunities to help all students thrive. Both the Framework and Toolkit were created in partnership by The Steve Fund and The Jed Foundation (JED).

From 2020 to 2022, Oral History Summer School collected nearly 100 interviews from 23 educators about their experiences teaching during the pandemic, including those who teach in both school and community-based settings. The Education Narratives Project online archive, which opened in January 2023, covers three school years and seven interview phases, documenting the initial closing of schools in Spring 2020 up through the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. Listen to the narratives and meet the interviewees through the online archive today.

On the surface, the 2022-2023 school year looks like a return to normalcy. Nearly all public schools report offering full-time in-person classes, most have stopped COVID protocols, and the percentage of schools reporting that staff or students have been quarantined is down. A survey of 1,016 afterschool program providers conducted by Afterschool Alliance found that 94 percent of afterschool program providers are physically open. However, a closer examination reveals irregularities indicating that more work remains to be done before declaring a rebound from the pandemic. Read their brief, "Afterschool Programs Open, but Still Recovering Post-Pandemic," to learn more about the issues arising.

Out-of-school time programs have a long history of focusing on social and emotional learning skills as part of their mission to build a sense of belonging among young people and positive relationships between youth and adults. High-quality SEL programs have been shown to improve young people’s behavior, attitudes, and academic performance. Skills for Success: Developing Social and Emotional Competencies in Out-of-School-Time Programs, a report from the RAND Corporation, provides tips and recommendations to help OST providers incorporate high-quality SEL instruction and practices into their programs.

The Wallace Foundation has released a new podcast series, Beyond the Classroom, that discusses findings from a student-designed study meant to help surface young people’s insights into how to improve out-of-school time (OST) programs. The study, consisting of focus groups and a survey, was designed by 12 high school and college students from New York, Colorado and Kentucky and was advised by four university researchers. The three-episode podcast series brings together members of the research team and OST practitioners to discuss the findings of the study and offer solutions around accessibility, improving staff recruitment and retention, and creating spaces where everyone belongs.

The Study of Social and Emotional Skills is an international effort led by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to understand the importance of these skills in student development and learning. The Houston Independent School District served as the only U.S. site for this study, with local data collection and analysis managed by the Kinder Institute's Houston Education Research Consortium. Over 6,400 10-year-old and 15-year-old students from 119 HISD schools participated in the study. A series of briefs from this study look at how social and emotional skills are related to academic outcomes, absenteeism, and more.

The Youth Agenda Steering Committee has held events for youth leaders and adult allies to come together around the 2022 Youth Agenda recommendations and ideate towards a 2023 Youth Agenda. The NYC Youth Agenda Steering Committee hosted its second annual Policy Breakfast this past Tuesday. Youth leaders from the convening organizations reported on the progress (and sometimes lack thereof) around last year’s recommendations through the Accountable to YOUth Report.

Citizens’ Committee for Children has released a new report, the Child & Family Well-being in New York State (CFWB) index, which underscores the urgent need for state leaders to go further to address the compounding consequences of the pandemic and profound disparities experienced by children and families. Their comprehensive report examines county-level data on economic security, housing stability, health care, education, youth, and families and communities. It importantly draws attention to the status of children and families in all 62 counties in New York, illustrating both where barriers to well-being are concentrated and long-standing inequities that persist across the state.

Youth INC has released The Pandemic Report: Considerations for a Post-Pandemic Future for Youth Development Nonprofits. This first-of-its-kind report focuses on data and insights from youth development organizations about the knock-on effect of the pandemic over the past three years. Their interactive webpage illustrates the resilience and ingenuity of their Nonprofit Partner Network and highlights key statistics surrounding the challenges brought on by the pandemic, including loss of revenue, increased community demand for services, and staffing concerns.