GOAL 1:
Student Mental Health
Central Falls
There is a growing youth mental health crisis in the United States, with more depression, anxiety, and trauma impacting young people, and especially youth of color and LGBTQ youth.
In 2022, a coalition of Rhode Island pediatric and behavioral health organizations declared a Rhode Island State of Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. The State of Emergency noted not only the impact of the pandemic, but also that “the inequities that result from structural racism have contributed to disproportionate impacts on children from communities of color.”
Because of this impact of mental health on students, Central Falls families and students chose this as a focus area. The team’s research found that as a diverse community with a high percent of Spanish speaking and Latino students, Central Falls students need to be supported by the school community in a culturally appropriate way. For example, one way our team found that students could be supported was to make teaching staff, students, and families more aware of the resources schools already offer to address student needs. The following indicators can help shine a light on the kind of resources available to students and the ways they are impacting the school community.
The SCORE Central Falls Mental Health indicators are separated into three goal areas that envision strong school-based mental health supports for Central Falls students:
| Number | Indicator |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mental health support staff to student ratios |
| 2 | Staff participation in mental health training |
| Number | Indicator | 3 | Mental health support staff by race, gender, and language spoken |
|---|
| Number | Indicator |
|---|---|
| 4 | Student knowlege of and satisfaction with mental health supports and resources for students | 5 | Staff knowlege of and satisfaction with mental health supports and resources for students |
| 6 | Family knowlege of and satisfaction with mental health supports and resources for students |
| 7 | Student mental health services provided by partner organizations |
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Currently, the active indicator links represent data that is publicly available (i.e., enrollment data and SurveyWorks climate survey). However, in many cases, our community-identified indicators differ from those that are publicly available. We are working to request data that the school district collects but is not yet made public. As new data and visualizations are ready, we will add them to the SCOREcard.
Additionally, some of what community members have asked to be measured in the SCOREcard is, to the best of our knowledge, not currently being collected In these cases, this SCOREcard represents a call to action for the school system, in partnership with community organizations, to collect data in areas that matter to the community, and to make it publicly accessible. As we get access to more data, more indicators will be populated and our SCOREcard will be stronger.