Responding to escalating mental health needs of students was an area of intense interest at the California School Boards Association’s annual conference in San Diego, where we were this week. We discuss proactive strategies with two leaders who have made student wellness their focus: San Mateo County Superintendent Nancy Magee, who is encouraging collaborative efforts among 23 districts, and Carrie Du Bois, a school board member of the Sequoia Union High School District and a long-time advocate for foster youth.

We also speak with two staff members of Acknowledge Alliance in Mountain View, about their organization’s mental health partnership with school districts. Sarah Kremer counsels teachers on coping with stress on the job; Alexandra Papa provides therapy to traumatized high school students.

At the conference, the school boards’ association also announced it was deferring until 2022 the pursuit of a $15 billion tax measure to benefit schools and community colleges. Association spokesman Troy Flint explains why.

For more, check out the following:

• Schools keep hiring counselors, but students’ stress levels are only growing
• California parents and educators help students cope with fire trauma, again
• Schools need more resources for student mental health and wellness
• Trauma in Paradise: A California school system focuses on mental health after devastating fire
• School-based health care a low priority in California
• California School Boards Association pulls plan to put $15 billion tax on 2020 ballot
• One step closer to what no one wants: dueling tax plans in November 2020