Once-normal aspects of school life - lunchtime, extracurricular activities, assemblies, school trips, parent-teacher conferences, reliable bus schedules - have been transformed if not eliminated. Many schools have still not returned to normal, worsening learning loss and social isolation. School shootings have also risen: The Washington Post counted 42 last year in the U.S., the most on record and up from 27 in 2019. In Chicago, for example, 101 residents under age 20 were murdered last year, up from 76 in 2019. Gun violence against children has increased, as part of a broader nationwide rise in crime. visits for suspected suicide attempts by 12- to 17-year-old girls rose by 51 percent from early 2019 to early 2021, according to the C.D.C. Suicide attempts have risen, slightly among adolescent boys and sharply among adolescent girls. They cited “dramatic increases in emergency department visits for all mental health emergencies.”
Three medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recently declared a national state of emergency in children’s mental health. Many children and teenagers are experiencing mental health problems, aggravated by the isolation and disruption of the pandemic. “We haven’t seen this kind of academic achievement crisis in living memory,” Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. The shortfalls were largest for Black and Hispanic students, as well as students in schools with high poverty rates. Among third through eighth graders, math and reading levels were all lower than normal this fall, according to NWEA, a research group. The tollĬhildren fell far behind in school during the first year of the pandemic and have not caught up. Today’s newsletter offers an overview of that crisis. But until I spent time pulling together data and reading reports, I did not understand just how alarming the situation had become. I have long been aware that the pandemic was upending children’s lives. American children are starting 2022 in crisis.
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