Center for MH in Schools & Student/Learning
Supports
What's New From the Center?
2025 – Over the previous years, our analyses of prevailing school improvement legislation, planning, and literature have
delineated fundamental deficiencies, especially with respect to enhancing equity of opportunity and closing the achievement gap.
As
schools continue to recover from the pandemic, it is essential to move forward
in making fundamental changes.
With this in mind,
a major facet of our work in 2025 continues to focus school improvement policy and planning on:
(1) moving school improvement from a two- to a three-component policy and practice framework (That is, expanding from a primary focus on instruction and management/government concerns to fully integrate a third primary component directly concerned with improving how schools address barriers to learning and teaching.)
(2) integrating a deep understanding of motivation – especially intrinsic motivation and personalized teaching
(3) reframing of remediation and special education emphasizing personalized special assistance that is applied in and out of classrooms and practiced in a sequential and hierarchical manner.
(4) transforming student and learning supports into a unified, comprehensive, and equitable system designed to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students and families.
(5) reworking the leadership structure for whole school improvement
(6) enhancing school-community collaboration by establishing a collaborative operational infrastructure that enables weaving together resources to address shared concerns
(7) expanding the framework for school accountability
(8) providing guidance for substantive, scalable, and sustainable systemic changes
For details see the resources listed below.
All New Center Resources (Reports, Briefs, Information Resources. Packets, Practice Notes) are Reported Each Month in the Center UPDATEs section of ENEWS and Entered into the
Resource Catalogue.
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Quarterly e-Journal
Addressing Barriers to Learning.
Spring, 2025
>Public Education at a Crossroads:
Where do schools need to go from here?
>Taking Some First Steps
Please share widely.
Access to previous issues of this resource are
online at
https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/newsarchive.html
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Community of Practice --
"Weekly Practitioner"
https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/practitioner.htm
5/7/25
>Redefining the resilience narrative
>Student Surveillance vs. Privacy: Another dilemma for schools
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
4/23/25
>Student well-being and social support
>About the Wellness Coach Model for Enhancing Student Supports
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
4/16/25
>What is the role of school leadership in enhancing
students’ equity of opportunity?
>Helping others bring children happiness
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
4/9/25
>What contributes to depressed mood among adolescents?
>About children in foster care
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
4/2/25
>How Important is What This Middle School Student Has to Say?
>How unified and comprehensive are "whole-school" approaches?
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
3/19/25
>It's not about just throwing money at problems: Making Money Matter
>Working on Recovery
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
3/12/25
>When is it essential to talk with (and not just at) students?
>Perspectives on Universal School-based Mental Health Interventions
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
3/5/25
>"The more time students with disabilities spend in general classrooms the
better they do academically."" Is that statement supported by research?
> Perspectives on Preventing school violence
>Eugene School District 4J Joins Lawsuit to Block Threat to Federal Funds
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
2/19/25
>Supporting Social and Emotional Development in 2025
>Advocating for Change in Providing Student/Learning Supports
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
2/12/25
>Including Youth in Deciding on How to Improve Schools
>Youth need to feel useful
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
2/5/25
>Are schools responsible for supporting staff mental wellness?
>Supporting students during and after a crisis
>Links to a few other relevant shared resources
Examples of previous discussions
>Behavior Problems: What's a teacher to do?
>Student news broadcasts as a platform for participatory civics
>Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences and Resilience
>"Holidays" are Special Social and Emotional Development Opportunities
>Are you part of a school stakeholder collaborative?
>Supporting students impacted by threat of family deportation
>Positive working relationships in the classroom
>Concerns about online therapy for adolescents
>End of the year? ... No, not for the school year!
>Are schools protecting students' mental health?
>What do those in the field say about what student/learning supports
are most helpful?
>About socioeconomic factors and achievement gaps
> Let's face it: MTSS is not a unified, comprehensive, and equitable
student support system
>Preventing truancy
>About Addressing Poverty: What’s a School's Role?
>Demonstrating that mental health in schools is worth the investment
>Promoting positive mental health in schools
>Colleague asks for "real" examples of schools addressing prevention
>About Engaging students in active learning
>Are school boards important??
>Impact of homework on students and families
>About new directions for addressing youth mental health
>Will Tier 3 interventions reduce school shootings?
>About Relationship Building at School
>What do you think about online/telephone counseling for students?
>Rethinking universal mindfulness programs in schools
>Should schools use student well-being surveys to guide policy/practice?
>How should schools use artificial intelligence and also cope with misuses?
>Looking for a list of behavioral/mental health evidence based
interventions for use in schools
>Does MTSS contribute to the marginalization of disabled students?
>Student voice and mental health in schools
>Prevention, promotion, & strength-based approaches to youth mental health
>What's involved in recruiting and retaining school professionals?
>>Enhancing Ongoing Alliances Between Teachers and Student/Learning Support Staff
>Who's Really Interested in TRANSFORMING Student and Learning Supports?
>Schools need to consider "fit" in adopting interventions
>A related concern about fitting evidence-based treatment
to the person, not the diagnosis
>What's being done about youth who have disconnected from school?
>About "at-risk" youth
>Showing and Receiving Kindness: An Example of a Natural Opportunity for SEL
>Can there be too much talk about mental health?
>Artificial Intelligence in the classroom
>Can unnecessary student mental health referrals be reduced?
>Increasing Concern About the Complexity of Attendance Problems
>Absenteeism: Yet Another Reason for Transforming Student/Learning Supports
>Social-Emotional Curriculum Isn’t a Good Fit for Every Student
>Paraprofessionals and student/learning supports
>Shifting discipline from consequences to prevention
>The impact of students' sense of belonging on their learning
>What will best meet the needs of all students and staff:
>Adding Some More Mental Health Services at Schools
OR
Developing a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable
Student and Learning Supports System?
>Discipline's impact on student mental health
>About concerns that arise in addressing school/community violence
>Some indicators of youth risk behavior show encouraging trends
>About mental health in schools as a platform for transforming
student/learning supports
>Students Thrive with Positive Experiences (and so do school staff)
>What problems arise when additional MH professionals are brought into a school?
>Focusing on Mental Health in Schools from a Public Health Perspective
>Countering the Impending Tidal Wave of Unnecessary Referrals for
Special Assistance and Special Education
>About Developing Kindness and Compassion & Promoting MH
>Time for Straight Talk about Mental Health Services and MH in Schools
>Evolving Community Schools and Transforming Student/Learning Supports
>How are various sources of funding being braided to improve/transform
student/learning supports?
>Can youth empowerment enhance violence prevention?
>Student anxiety, aggressive behavior, school climate, & other related concerns
>How should schools improve discipline practices?
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ENEWS*
>Planning Much Needed End-of-the-year Celebrations ...
and Being Proactive in Making What Comes Next Good for Students and School
Also
- Continuing Education Through Quick links to online resources
- A few Stories Excerpted from Various News Sources
Comments and
sharing from the field
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