Schools' mental health services and young children's emotions, behavior, and learning

摘要: Recent empirical research has found that children's noncognitive skills play a critical role in their own success, young behavioral and psychological disorders can severely harm future outcomes, disruptive students the behavior learning of classmates. Yet relatively little is known about wide-scale interventions designed to improve mental health. This first nationally representative study provision, financing, impact school-site health services for children. Elementary school counselors are employees who provide all types students, typically meeting with one-on-one or small groups. Given counselors' nonrandom assignment schools, it particularly challenging estimate these on student outcomes. First, cross-state differences policies descriptive evidence states more aggressive elementary counseling make greater test score gains less likely report internalizing externalizing problem behaviors compared similar observed characteristics schools other states. Next, difference-in-differences estimates exploiting both timing targeted grade levels states' policy changes substantially influence teachers' perceptions climate. The adoption state-funded counselor subsidies minimum counselor–student ratios reduces fraction teachers reporting instruction suffers due misbehavior fractions problems physically fighting each other, cutting class, stealing, using drugs. These findings imply there may be substantial public private benefits derived from providing additional counselors.