The number of youth emergency department (ED) visits due to mental health concerns has been steadily increasing with a large number of youth being referred from school. Despite the increase in ED visits, there has not been an increase in the number of students who are actually admitted to the hospital. Furthermore, youth referred from school are…

Research supports the use of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) for meeting student academic, behavioral, and socioemotional needs. MTSS is viewed as an ideal model to deliver school-based mental health (SBMH) services to students. However, limited research has examined what this framework for service delivery looks like in practice. Utilizing…

Eating disorders have substantially risen in school-aged youth, especially in a post-pandemic world. Impacting children and adolescents across races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations, prevalence rates suggest that eating disorders do not discriminate. Interestingly, despite the rising prevalence rates and increase of eating disorders,…

Pediatric cancer is the second leading cause of death among children ages 1-14 (Whitehead et al., 2016). Approximately 10,500 children ages 1-14 and 5090 adolescents ages 15-19 have been diagnosed with cancer in 2021 (American Cancer Society, 2021). An estimated 28% of childhood cases and 13% of adolescent patients will be diagnosed explicitly…

Getting feedback on assignments is a ubiquitous educational experience. Researchers have typically described the feedback process in one of two ways--feedback as transmission of information from a more knowledgeable other to the learner or feedback as a student-centered dialogue. The present study highlights a gap between theory and practice by…

Given the prevalence of mental health challenges in children and the significant time they spend in school, teachers play a critical role in identifying and addressing the socio-emotional needs of their students. This instrumental case study consulted a group of 14 school personnel (eight teachers, four resource teachers, and two administrators)…

This grounded theory study investigated collaboration methods among actors working with gifted students with complex educational needs and their parents. Through interviews with students, parents, educational professionals, and care providers, both successful and unsuccessful collaboration strategies were examined. Subsequently, a model was…

Student mental health needs continue to rise across the United States and many students and families rely on schools to provide services to meet these needs. Yet, an overwhelming number of available frameworks and approaches to school mental health (SMH) and overlapping terminology surrounding SMH supports like trauma-informed (TI) approaches,…

School mental health programs are an important component of the national response to the current student mental health crisis. However, evidence-based programs often face numerous barriers to their selection, scale-up, and sustainability in real-world settings. In this study, we interviewed 15 educational stakeholders to examine what influences…

On March 28, 2022, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1557 "The Parental Rights in Education" bill into law, taking effect July 1, 2022. As written, the bill: (a) prohibits discussion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, and all other terms and concepts related to sexuality and gender (LGBTQ+)…

The American ethos that you can be whatever you want to be has not always been a helpful adage for gifted students. Gifted students require career counseling to understand the world of work, and to identify their interests and values in addition to their already-identified talents. Academic planning and career development for gifted students is an…

Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) experience more significant mental health concerns compared to their cisgender and heterosexual peers, especially within recent years, as a result of the relentless political attacks on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) community. Given that youth…

Help seeking is a key component of many systems of self-regulated learning (SRL). Prior research has noted how motivational and other aspects of SRL relate to students' engagement in help seeking and endorsement of types of help seeking (i.e., adaptive, expedient, and avoidant). This study examines specific antecedents to help seeking--monitoring…

Given the prevalence and negative outcomes associated with untreated mental health concerns, there is an urgent need for schools to enhance their capacity to prevent, identify, and address these needs. This is particularly important for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who are more likely to be underserved and face…

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) students often face discrimination, harassment, and inadequate support in educational settings, leading to increased stress and negative health outcomes. This study investigated differences in perceived social support from various sources and types between TGD students and their cisgender peers, and how this…