Source for Photo: A report card from the group Inseparable found Pennsylvania has one school counselor for every 369 students, while the recommended ratio is 1 to 250. (Adobe Stock) Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Service

(Reported by Danielle Smith of Keystone News Service)

(Harrisburg, PA) As young people struggle with mental-health issues, schools often provide the best avenue for getting them help. However, Pennsylvania has fallen behind in providing services to students. A mental-health report card for Pennsylvania found that more than 57-thousand children with major depression didn’t receive treatment. Kate Fox is behavioral health policy coordinator with Children First P-A. She says schools are vital for identifying mental-health warning signs and intervening early, and emphasizes the need for system-wide, sustainable reforms that create a workforce pipeline for diverse mental-health professionals to support children in and out of schools. Fox says the report card also shows only one school social worker for every 3416 students, and that recommended ratio is one for every 250. Fox points out that access to school-based mental-health services in Pennsylvania varies significantly, largely due to funding disparities. Wealthier districts generally offer more robust support compared with underfunded districts. She adds the ADA was first passed in 1990 under President George H-W Bush, and its legal precedent was based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.