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To combat mental health challenges in schools, New York City Council members want to expand support for student wellness clubs and other peer-to-peer programs.
Under one proposal, the city would develop a pilot program to bring mental health professionals into middle and high school wellness clubs, council members discussed at a Monday hearing.
Other proposed bills in a legislative package focused on student mental health would require the city to expand informational materials for students seeking to start their own wellness clubs, as well as training for students interested in peer-to-peer mental health programs. Wellness clubs and other support programs that bring students together to discuss mental health concerns can raise awareness about the challenges students face at school, while reducing the stigma associated with seeking help, according to advocates and experts.
The proposals come as schools in the city and across the nation have seen a worrying rise in mental health challenges. For many students, the COVID-19 pandemic upended day-to-day life — isolating them from their peers, while in some cases causing financial or personal losses within their families. In recent years, educators have continued to report lingering behavioral concerns, even years after students returned to the classroom.
In New York City, the share of students who reported suicidal ideation jumped to nearly 16% in 2021, with about 9% of high school students reporting they had attempted suicide that year.
The legislative proposals are the latest step in a continued push from council members to expand peer support programs to address mental health concerns.
As council members discussed the proposed legislation and the need for more peer-to-peer programs, they added it’s critical the programs serve as one element of a robust mental health support system.
“What we keep hearing over and over again — from not just the providers, but also the students — is how important it is to have wellness clubs,” said Council member Linda Lee, who chairs the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction. “These programs hopefully are meant to complement what’s already there. … It’s another way to catch the folks from slipping through the cracks.”
High school students who testified at the hearing spoke about their own experiences facing mental health challenges at school — sharing stories of friends who struggled with suicidal ideation or who had attempted suicide. Students called for more mental health support at school.
“We are the generation that spent important years of our lives in the COVID-19 lockdown, then released back into the world without the tools to cope,” said Adonte DaCosta, a senior at the Manhattan Early College School for Advertising. “Many of us hold all of our emotions back until we can’t deal with the stress anymore and have to release it.”
City officials told council members during the hearing that the city’s schools had roughly 5,200 counselors and social workers. As of February, that meant an average of one counselor or social worker per 162 students, according to city data. (Excluding social workers, the city’s schools on average had one counselor per 262 students.)
And at 548 schools, Health Department staff work with external mental health providers and community-based organizations on school campuses, said Erica Lynne Smith, director of school mental health for the city’s Health Department.
“Every student has access to a school counselor, a social worker, a mental health clinic through an external partner or clinics that are within their building,” said Beverly Logan, executive director of counseling supports for the city’s Education Department.
City officials said further conversations would be required to work out the logistics of a pilot program and a path to broader implementation, adding they were concerned that relying on volunteer mental health professionals could raise issues around safety and compensation.
Still, officials noted students have shown enthusiasm for peer-to-peer programming and for having more mental health professionals at school.
Amallia Orman, student voice manager at the city’s Education Department, told council members that students have frequently taken the initiative to start wellness clubs at school, particularly in the years since the pandemic.
“Anecdotally, I think that young people gravitate towards supportive adults in their school that may or may not have a clinical association,” she added. “It might be a staff member as a counselor, it might be a guidance counselor.
“But I would say that young people also advocate for more mental health professionals in their school,” Orman added.
Council members, advocates concerned over student data privacy
In response to escalating youth mental health concerns, NYC last year launched Teenspace — a free online therapy service for teenagers that saw roughly 16,000 students sign up within the first year. But council members had concerns about privacy on the platform.
Last month, advocates and attorneys from the New York Civil Liberties Union raised alarm over concerns that the online platform may violate state and federal laws protecting student data privacy.
Advocates fear that Teenspace — a $26 million partnership between the city Health Department and teletherapy giant Talkspace — may be improperly tracking and sharing student information with outside parties and social media companies.
During the Monday hearing, Council member Rita Joseph, who chairs the council’s education committee, pressed city officials on how data was being tracked by the platform, as well as how the city would ensure student student information was secure.
“We are looking into this right now,” said Marnie Davidoff, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Children, Youth, and Families at the city’s Health Department. “Our contract explicitly requires student information to be maintained privately, not to be shared, and we have been working extensively with our provider partner to ensure that that is being enforced and implemented as we’d expect it to be.”
When city officials were unable to provide a precise timeline, Joseph floated the possibility of holding an additional council hearing focused on the issue.
“What are we doing to protect the privacies of young people?” she said. “I don’t want to hear excuses. I want to hear a plan.”
Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.
