Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced a cross-agency initiative Monday to provide more support to children with high acuity mental and behavioral health needs and keep youth in crisis in the least restrictive setting possible.

鈥淥ur agencies are working with a growing number of families who have children with significant and complex mental and behavioral needs,鈥� Holcomb said in a release. 鈥淭hese families need help navigating the supports available to them so children receive the right services in their individual communities, and we are committed to helping them.鈥�

The Family and Social Services Administration will be one of the four state agencies participating alongside the governor鈥檚 office in the Children with High Acuity Needs Project, as well as the Department of Correction, the Department of Child Services and the Department of Education. The four-point plan is geared toward a child鈥檚 overall well-being, according to the release.

A multi-agency rapid response team has assisted more than 20 children and their families, state officials shared, by 鈥渇inding an appropriate placement and connecting to needed services, helping to stabilize crisis situations.鈥�

The four pillars of the project include:

• Cross-agency navigators that can coordinate care across state agencies and local services, whether education, mental health needs, intellectual or development disabilities, child welfare, juvenile justice or physical health needs. This pilot program will focus on using schools to avoid more restrictive settings, such as institutionalization, and helping those children leaving residential settings adjust to home life.
• and kinship caregivers, who will receive additional support to care for children with high acuity needs and be eligible for respite care. The state issued the request for proposals earlier this year and serving different parts of the state.
• A Gatekeeper process review for children in the state鈥檚 psychiatric hospital network to keep children in the least restrictive setting possible and allow youth to leave when ready, rather than staying longer than medically necessary.
• Youth transitional homes and caregiver coaching that will be an 鈥渋ntermediary鈥� level of support for youth returning to the community following residential care. As opposed to traditional group homes, these residences aren鈥檛 designed to be long-term, but rather 鈥渢o help youth reconnect with their daily routines and communities.鈥� Families will also receive caregiver coaching.

The ongoing initiative, which will have upcoming stakeholder meetings with more information, will be receive some support from the state鈥檚 allotment of the .

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on and .

New York City鈥檚 free online therapy platform for teens may violate state and federal laws protecting student data privacy, lawyers from the New York Civil Liberties Union and advocates charged in a letter Tuesday to the city鈥檚 Education and Health Departments.

, a $26 million partnership between the city Health Department and teletherapy giant Talkspace launched in late 2023, connects city residents between ages 13 and 17 with free therapists by text, phone, or video chat.

In less than a year, roughly 16,000 students have signed up, Health Department officials said. Sign-ups disproportionately came from youth who identified as Black, Latino, Asian American and female and live in some of the city鈥檚 lowest-income neighborhoods, .

Information shared with a therapist is subject to stringent protections under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. But before connecting with a therapist through Teenspace, teens go through a registration process that asks for personal information like their name, school, mental health history, and gender identity. Advocates are concerned such information is being improperly collected and could be misused.

For one, teens enter the registration information before securing parental consent 鈥� a possible violation of federal student privacy laws, the letter contends.

And families don鈥檛 get a chance to review the privacy policy 鈥� which discloses that registration information can be used to 鈥渢ailor advertising鈥� and for marketing purposes 鈥� before entering the registration information, advocates allege. There鈥檚 an option for teens to request that their data be deleted from the company鈥檚 platform, but it鈥檚 hard to find, according to advocates.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all very invasive,鈥� said Shannon Edwards, a parent and founder of AI For Families, an organization that seeks to help families navigate artificial intelligence, who co-authored the letter along with NYCLU and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also very unclear that parents understand what they鈥檙e getting themselves into.鈥�

Advocates also pointed to the risk of a potential data breach 鈥� something the city has in recent years.

Advocates say similar about have been circulating for years and questioned whether city officials did sufficient due diligence or built in enough additional privacy safeguards before inking the contract.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the opacity of the relationship here, and the failure to make manifest what the city is doing to ensure there isn鈥檛 this data accumulation and sharing for inappropriate purposes,鈥� said Beth Haroules, a senior attorney at the NYCLU who co-authored the letter.

Health Department spokesperson Rachel Vick said the agency has 鈥渢aken additional steps to protect the data of Teenspace users and ensure information is not collected for personal gain, including stipulations that require all client data to remain confidential during and after the completion of the city鈥檚 contract and barring use of data for any purpose other than providing the services included in the contract.鈥�

Client data is destroyed after 30 days if a teen doesn鈥檛 connect with a therapist, officials said.

A spokesperson for Talkspace referred questions to the Health Department.

The extent to which Teenspace is subject to state and federal laws governing student privacy in educational settings is somewhat murky, given that the contract is with the city鈥檚 Health Department, not its Education Department.

But NYCLU attorneys contend 鈥渢he City cannot absolve itself of its responsibility to provide the protections inherent in federal and state laws鈥imply because the contract sits with DOHMH instead of DOE. The service is promoted on public school websites, and it is DOE鈥檚 responsibility to ensure that student data is protected, regardless of which City agency signs the contract.鈥�

Parents may be more inclined to trust the platform because it has a 鈥渟tamp of approval鈥� from the school system, Edwards added.

A Health Department spokesperson didn鈥檛 specify whether the program is subject to education privacy laws, but said it鈥檚 鈥渘ot a school based service.鈥�

Teenspace has been the city鈥檚 highest-profile effort to address the ongoing youth mental health crisis.

鈥淲e are meeting people where they are with a front door to the mental health system that for too long has been too hard to find,鈥� said Ashwin Vasan, the city鈥檚 health commissioner, in May.

Some teens have praised the program, noting it鈥檚 a way to bring mental health care to young people who may not otherwise have access.

But some mental health providers have argued it can鈥檛 replace the kind of intensive care a clinician provides, especially for kids with severe mental health challenges.

Company officials shared in May that they had helped 36 teens navigate serious incidents including reports of suicide attempts and abuse 鈥� cases they referred to child protective services, in-person therapists, or hospitals.

Talkspace CEO Jon Cohen previously told Chalkbeat the company uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to scan transcripts of therapy sessions to help identify teens at risk of suicide.

Even advocates critical of Teenspace鈥檚 privacy protections acknowledge the severe shortage of mental health providers and say teletherapy can play a role in filling the gap.

鈥淲e know you cannot find providers 鈥� there is such a need,鈥� said Haroules. But advocates said the city can do more to ensure its vendors are meeting strict standards for data privacy, especially with such sensitive information.

鈥淓veryone thinks, well, mental health is important for kids, these kids of services are required 鈥� when on the other side is: 鈥楬ow are they getting to it?鈥欌�� said Edwards. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter what the app is, there has to be a standard.鈥�

This was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Each day after his shift as a machine operator, Eliberto Ortega used to walk through the front door of his east Houston home, take off his steel-toed work boots and call out, 鈥溌縌ui茅n es la princesa de Pap谩?鈥� meaning, 鈥淲ho鈥檚 Papa鈥檚 princess?鈥�

His daughter would holler back her own name, bolting into his arms. Ortega would scoop up his little girl and, after the hug, she would ask to carry his lunchbox into the kitchen.

It鈥檚 been over two years since Ortega鈥檚 daughter, now 8 and a third-grader at Houston ISD鈥檚 J.R. Harris Elementary School, has felt her father鈥檚 embrace.

Ortega died of cardiac arrest while sick with the coronavirus in July 2021. Since then, there鈥檚 been a father-sized hole in the lives of Ortega鈥檚 daughter and her younger brother, who is 7. His daughter still struggles at times to sleep at night, as swirling memories of her dad occupy her thoughts. His son has become more reserved, listening to music about loss and longing.

鈥淲e still have an invisible string to him all the way up to heaven,鈥� said Ortega鈥檚 daughter, whose name is being withheld by the Houston Landing due to the sensitive nature of discussing her mental health. 鈥淗e鈥檚 with you. It鈥檚 connected with you but you cannot see the string.鈥�

In Harris County, thousands of students continue to grapple with the long shadow of grief cast by the deaths of parents and caregivers from COVID-19. Yet today, with federal stimulus funding for schools drawing to an end and state lawmakers dedicating virtually no additional money for public schools during the 2023 legislative session, education leaders are starting to make tough choices about whether to maintain mental health support for children like the Ortegas.

Their decisions will have lifelong effects for students quietly struggling with their anguish. Researchers have found the sudden loss of a parent when it comes to impact on academic performance.

鈥溾�嬧�婽hose kids who don’t want to think about or talk about what happened tend to struggle longer,鈥� said Julie Kaplow, executive director of the Trauma and Grief Center at the Texas-based Hackett Center for Mental Health. Professionals trained in trauma-informed care 鈥� including those placed at schools 鈥� can help children process their grief in a healthy way, she said.

No government agency has tallied the number of pandemic-bereaved children in the Houston area, but the number might reach about 5,000. An estimated 41,000 Texas children lost a caregiver to the virus, according to a maintained by the Imperial College of London, and about 12 percent of the state鈥檚 coronavirus deaths occurred in Harris County, Texas Health and Human Services show.

A 5,000-person estimate could understate the magnitude of the losses because parent deaths due to reasons other than infection, such as drug overdoses and other health issues, also increased nationwide during the pandemic.

A family man

In the Ortega family, before the virus that changed everything, Sundays meant time with Dad.

It was the one free day in Eliberto鈥檚 six-day work week, said Laura Ortega, his widow. After going to Mass in the morning, the afternoon would become an adventure of his design. Many weeks, the family would enjoy a bite to eat, then head to a flea market. The four would peruse the multicolored stalls and his daughter would ask to go on rides that her younger brother was still scared of. Eliberto, relishing the chance to spoil his daughter a little, would always say yes, Laura said.

The husband and wife met at a Houston nightclub when Laura was 19, him coaxing her onto the dance floor. After that, the couple dated for several years, at first only meeting up at parks to swing on the swing sets, then later watching Eliberto鈥檚 favorite Spanish telenovelas and dancing together to m煤sica norte帽a. Eventually, they married.

Both dreamed of becoming parents, but Laura struggled to get pregnant. Several years later, when her belly started to swell, it felt like a miracle. A second child followed a year afterward. It felt like everything was falling into place.

But one evening in 2021 shattered the future Laura had pictured. Eliberto, who had tested positive for the coronavirus earlier that day, took a rapid turn for the worse. As his children slept in the same room, his breathing became raspy, his lungs closing in on themselves. His eyes rolled back into his head as he slumped in his chair. A trickle of blood slid down from his nose.

Desperately, Laura tried speaking to him. She got no response.

鈥淚 literally felt at that moment like he took his last breath in my face,鈥� Laura said. 鈥淏ecause after that, I didn鈥檛 feel his heartbeat. I didn鈥檛 feel nothing.鈥�

Emergency medical staff arrived at the home to perform CPR and transport Eliberto to the hospital. But hours later, doctors pronounced Eliberto dead.

The next day, the kids arose to an alternate universe. As the news sunk in, the brother and sister spent the following days alternating between bewildered silences and hysterics.

It was late July, just a few weeks before the first day of school. The return to classes would inevitably mean classmates and teachers asking her kids how their summers had gone. Laura decided she had to get them help from a counselor.

Mental health needs mount

Across Texas, schools saw a surge of demand for the sort of services Laura was seeking.

The Texas Education Agency鈥檚 School Mental Health Task Force found a 鈥渟taggering increase鈥� in the rates of students experiencing depression, anxiety and other mental health concerns since the pandemic, according to its 2023 report. About half of roughly 750 school districts surveyed by the task force reported rising rates of 鈥渄istress related to trauma and grief.鈥�

Sean Ricks, senior manager of HISD鈥檚 crisis intervention team, said he saw a surge in student psychological challenges during and after lockdown. The district launched a 24/7 crisis hotline that fielded about 600 calls, according to HISD.

鈥淚f I can just use the Richter scale 鈥� we were used to tremors of 2.5 or 3,鈥� Ricks said. 鈥淎t the return of the students to school, I would say it was probably a 5.5 or 6.鈥�

A shortage of psychological support for students has long plagued Texas public schools. For nearly a decade, zero districts in the state had all the recommended ratios of counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers, a .

But facing never-before-seen levels of psychological distress among students amid the pandemic, and simultaneously flush with cash thanks to the passage of a federal stimulus package that sent billions to Texas campuses, districts began investing in mental health.

As of 2022, Texas schools had spent $64 million in pandemic relief grants on student mental health needs, according to data the TEA provided to the Landing. All told, districts planned to devote over $300 million to the issue, according to a , the most recent available. The vast majority of the spending went to bringing on new staff, the TEA data show.

The investments spurred tangible, though modest, increases in the number of adults that students struggling with their mental health could turn to.

Statewide, schools added about 820 school counselors and 230 social workers from 2019-20 to 2022-23, according to the Landing鈥檚 analysis of TEA data. The change nudged the number of students per counselor or social worker statewide from 389 down to 363. Although school counselors in Texas are required to have training in mental health support, their jobs typically also involve helping with scheduling and making plans for after graduation.

In HISD, which lags behind statewide averages in mental health resources per child, the shifts were more extreme. Over the same period, the student-to-counselor-and-social-worker ratio decreased from 793-to-1 to 547-to-1. HISD also brought on more staffers known as 鈥渨raparound specialists鈥� meant to address students鈥� non-academic needs and this year that offer free psychological services.

Families like the Ortegas would finally have better access to the services they were looking for, it seemed.

鈥楾hey never call back鈥�

That鈥檚 not exactly how the situation played out for Laura.

Before the 2021-22 year began, just weeks after the death of her husband, she spoke with leaders at her children鈥檚 elementary school. She explained what her kids had experienced and asked what counseling services might be available. To her astonishment, she learned the school did not have a counselor.

J.R. Harris Elementary, facing a tight budget, had no guidance counselor to start the 2021-22 school year, Principal Jessica Rivero confirmed during an early September community event attended by the Landing.

In the meantime, without options at her children鈥檚 campus, Laura looked for psychology practices after she enrolled in Medicaid following Eliberto鈥檚 death. Medicaid had suggested several providers, so she went down the list calling every number. It yielded nothing.

鈥淭hey will just say, 鈥榃ell, you can call this place, and you can call this place, and you can call this place,鈥欌�� Laura said. 鈥淎nd you call them, but they never call back.鈥�

The lag time without access to counseling meant Laura鈥檚 children spent roughly six months going to school every day, attempting to maintain a semblance of normal life, with no outlet to process their loss other than with family members who were also grieving.

That unmet need can be dangerous to children, said Bradley Smith, director of the University of Houston’s school psychology doctorate program. Young people often need therapy catered to dealing with traumatic experiences in order to process them in a healthy way, he said.

鈥淭he saying, 鈥楾ime heals all wounds,鈥� that doesn’t really apply to trauma,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淛ust the passage of time doesn’t automatically take care of things. And so I think we have a lot of kids walking around that are still experiencing negative effects of the pandemic that haven’t been worked out.鈥�

J.R. Harris Elementary ultimately added a school counselor midway through the 2021-22 school year. While the counselor was not a child psychologist, she agreed to meet regularly with Laura鈥檚 children throughout the spring semester. The school later added a second counselor.

Talking about the loss of their dad in one-on-one meetings over the course of months helped Laura鈥檚 children begin to heal, she said. Then, in mid-2023, Laura finally found a therapy practice that would accept her insurance. Her kids now attend sessions regularly.

Still, it can be hard for Laura to gauge how her children are processing their grief.

This past summer, she received a troubling report from a staffer at her son鈥檚 YMCA camp who said she saw him cutting himself with scissors on two occasions. The second time, the staffer said she asked Laura鈥檚 son what he was doing, and he said he wanted to be with his father.

The episode triggered her own memories of childhood trauma for Laura, who cut herself when she was young while struggling to find an outlet to process difficult experiences.

鈥淚 want to make sure he doesn’t go through the same thing I went through, that it was hard to get somebody to help, or to listen, to hear me out,鈥� Laura said.

A fiscal cliff

Some of the mental health resources that Texas schools invested into supporting students鈥� mental health may now be in jeopardy.

The federal stimulus money that helped fund many positions will end in the fall of 2024, meaning districts will soon have to make tough choices about whether to keep or cut any recently added roles.

And state lawmakers, despite a nearly $33 billion surplus, ended their legislative sessions in 2023 without dedicating any new mental health funds to Texas public schools. One promised $100,000 or more per district for students鈥� psychological needs, but it died early in the legislative process. Barring an unexpected call for a special session, schools will not see significantly more funding until 2025 at the earliest.

That means school leaders likely will have to decide whether to pull money from other sources, such as teacher salaries, to pay for keeping recently added mental health services.  Those decisions will play into student learning, said Brian Woods, deputy executive director of advocacy for the Texas Association of School Administrators.

鈥淎 student with mental health needs, just like a student who’s hungry or can’t see well, is going to really struggle academically,鈥� Woods said.

In HISD, district leaders hired seven 鈥渋ntensive mental health specialists鈥� for positions that will not extend beyond the deadline to spend federal funds this year, spokesperson Joseph Sam said.

Nearby Fort Bend and Conroe independent school districts added six and 10 new mental health-related roles, respectively, thanks to stimulus funds. The positions will remain indefinitely, district officials said.

And Katy Independent School District said it has yet to decide the fate of 20 roles funded by the stimulus package, which totaled $4 million and included counselors and social workers.

Districts that decide against retaining pandemic-era mental health support fit into a troubling trend, said Kaplow, the Hackett Center grief specialist. People are eager to forget about COVID-19 and its lasting effects, she said.

鈥淚 do think it is in the rear-view mirror of most individuals,鈥� Kaplow said. 鈥淚 think that the silence around it is making it even more difficult for the children and families who are grieving.鈥�

鈥楬e鈥檚 watching them鈥�

Laura does her best to erase the silence and show her children that it鈥檚 OK to talk about their father. She frequently sports the cowboy boots her husband bought for her last birthday before he died. She keeps a locket around her neck that, when the light hits it right, reveals an image of the couple stealing a kiss.

She and her kids still sleep in the same room where her husband died because there鈥檚 no extra space in the house they share with their cousins. On the wall, she hung a framed picture of her children鈥檚 father wearing a white cowboy hat and tan blazer, hands stuffed into pockets, eyes shadowed by the brim, but gaze strong and directly into the camera. A teddy bear named Eric, Eliberto鈥檚 nickname, sits on the bed.

Laura鈥檚 son said he often brings his father鈥檚 voice to mind. If he needs help staying calm, like if someone is annoying him at school, he remembers Eliberto.

鈥淚n my head, I don鈥檛 forget him,鈥� Laura鈥檚 son said. 鈥淚 know, if I forget him, I鈥檓 never going to know him anymore.鈥�

Now, in lieu of the old rituals the family had, they have created new ones. Every Sunday after church, Laura and her children visit Eliberto鈥檚 gravesite. Most of the time, the kids race through the headstones in a game of tag or soccer.

Meanwhile, Laura sits by the stone marker, enjoying the fact her children can, once again, play in the presence of their father.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

More than a third of high school students reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic, more than half reported being subjected to emotional abuse at home and a quarter said a parent or another adult at home had lost their jobs, according to results from the first nationally representative survey of high school students鈥� mental health and well-being during the pandemic.

Faced with sudden school closures, social isolation and the fear of family loss or illness, 66% of students reported that schoolwork became more difficult to complete after the pandemic shuttered campuses nationwide in March 2020.

Even before the pandemic, survey data suggests that youth mental health had grown bleeker and suicide was already a leading cause of death among teens. The new CDC data point to a situation that鈥檚 grown even more dire, especially for LGBTQ youth and girls, two groups that reported particularly high levels of poor mental health during the pandemic.

In response, public health experts called on policymakers to act with urgency to reverse the trend.聽

鈥淵oung people and their families have been under incredible levels of stress during the pandemic,鈥� Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC鈥檚 division of adolescent and school health, said during a press call Thursday. 鈥淥ur data exposes cracks and uncovers an important layer of insight into the extreme disruptions that some youth have encountered.鈥澛�

The results come from the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, which was completed by a nationally representative sample of 7,705 public and private high school students. The CARES Act-funded questionnaire was conducted online between January and June 2021. Since then, the country has entered a new phase of the pandemic as mask mandates and other public health measures are lifted, but while the . Public health officials acknowledged it鈥檚 unclear how youth well-being has fared since the survey was completed.

The figures are key to understanding the pandemic’s effects on the health and well-being of American youth. Previous evidence has suggested the pandemic has had a deleterious effect on youth and contributed to trends like a surge in teen depression and anxiety, but the national survey is the first to asses the national prevalence of disruptions and adversities like parental job loss, personal job loss, homelessness, hunger and the extent of emotional or physical abuse at home.

They also reveal a promising strategy that school leaders can leverage to put youth on a better trajectory. Youth who feel connected to their school, the survey found, were significantly less likely than those who did not to report feeling hopeless or attempt suicide. Yet fewer than half 鈥� 47% 鈥� of teens reported feeling close to the people at their schools during the pandemic, when millions primarily experienced learning remotely.聽

鈥淎lthough our latest findings present an often-grim picture and there is much work to be done, it is clear that right now young people need all the support we can give them,鈥� Ethier said.

During his State of the Union address earlier this month, President Joe Biden addressed the youth mental health crisis, declaring that students 鈥渓ives and education have been turned upside-down.鈥� His released this week seeks $1 billion to double the number of counselors and psychologists in schools.聽

Based on the CDC鈥檚 survey data, these six charts show the challenges students faced during the pandemic 鈥� while also revealing promising strategies that could help them recover from more than two years of life-altering disruptions.聽

As the pandemic shuttered businesses, many teens were forced to live through the hardships of an economic crisis.

Nearly a third of students reported that a parent or another adult at home had lost their job while 22% of teens reported experiencing job loss themselves. A quarter of teens reported experiencing food insecurity. Among white students 18.5% reported experiencing hunger while 32% of Black students said they lacked enough food to eat. In total, 2% of students reported experiencing homelessness.聽

Teachers and other school officials are generally considered mandated reporters, putting them on the front lines of spotting issues like physical abuse at home. Remote learning heightened concerns that such abuse could go undetected at a moment when pandemic-induced stressors could exacerbate the problem. Indeed, the CDC data suggest that the physical and emotional abuse of teens has grown more alarming during the public health crisis.

More than half of respondents 鈥� 55% 鈥斅爎eported that a parent or another adult at home had subjected them to emotional abuse and 11% said they faced physical abuse. Black students experienced the highest prevalence of physical abuse by a parent, at 15%, compared to 9.8% of white students.聽

Those figures are substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels, when 13.9% of students reported experiencing emotional abuse in and 5.5% reported being subjected to physical abuse by a caregiver. These differences, CDC researchers concluded, highlights a reality that 鈥渋ncreased stress contributes to violence.鈥�

The pandemic鈥檚 devastating emotional toll on high schoolers was clear in the data. Overall, 37.1% of students reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic and an even larger share 鈥� 44.2% 鈥斅爏aid they felt persistently sad or hopeless during the 12 months prior to completing the survey.

And while a teen suicide crisis has been billowing for years, the new CDC data show the extent of the problem. While 19.9% of students reported that they seriously considered dying by suicide, a staggering 9% had actually tried.聽

The pandemic-era mental health crisis was particularly grim for girls. Nearly half of girls reported having poor mental health during the pandemic compared to nearly a quarter of boys. Similarly, 5.3% of boys reported attempting suicide compared with 12.4% of girls.聽

A widely reported found an increase in youth emergency room visits due to suicide attempts during the pandemic. In February and March 2021, suicide-related emergency room visits were 50.6% higher for girls and 3.7% higher for boys than they were during the same period in 2019.

Even prior to the pandemic, youth mental health was a critical public health concern. Among high school students nationwide, 26.1% reported feeling persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2009. By 2019, that rate jumped more than 10 percentage points to 36.8%. During that same period, there was a 5 percentage point increase in students reporting having seriously considered attempting suicide and a 2.6 percentage point increase in youth reporting having attempted suicide.聽

CDC data suggest the pandemic has been particularly challenging for students who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Perhaps more troubling, the data were released at a moment when Republican lawmakers have championed legislation that critics say would make life harder for LGBTQ youth. Just this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis , a controversial law that bans educators from offering instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity to children in grades K-3.聽

Nearly three-quarters of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens reported experiencing emotional abuse at home, compared to roughly half of their straight classmates. Similarly, more than a quarter of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens reported an attempt to die by suicide in the last year compared to 5.2% of heterosexual youth.

Although the survey doesn鈥檛 highlight the experiences of transgender youth, previous surveys suggest they also faced heightened risks during the pandemic compared to their cisgender peers, Ethier said.聽

Between January and June 2021, 31.6% of respondents reported using tobacco, alcohol or marijuana, or misusing prescription opioids. Nearly a third of students who said they鈥檇 used such substances before reported using more of them during the pandemic.聽

However, CDC survey data suggest that overall teen substance use decreased during the pandemic. It鈥檚 possible, researchers concluded, that students who attended schools virtually had limited access and greater parental supervision.

Students who attended schools virtually, the survey revealed, were less likely than those who attended in-person to use substances like tobacco and alcohol. For example, a quarter of in-person students reported using tobacco compared to just 9% of remote learners.聽

Because youth get tobacco products from social sources such as friends, access to those products likely decreased during the pandemic, researchers concluded. However, more open alcohol policies like home delivery may have lowered barriers for youth attempting to purchase booze.

The CDC survey highlights the steep obstacles that teens have had to navigate during the pandemic, but it also recommends strategies that could offer a brighter future. While remote learning likely hindered students鈥� feelings of connectedness at school, experts stressed it鈥檚 not too late to make positive changes.聽

The CDC survey reveals that feelings of connectedness at school are critical to youth mental health. More than a quarter of youth who felt connected at school reported poor mental health during the pandemic compared to nearly half of those who said they did not feel close to others at their schools.聽

Youth who said they experienced racism during the pandemic and those who are gay, lesbian or bisexual were less likely than other student groups to report feeling connected at school.聽

To foster greater connectedness and promote positive school climates, the CDC recommended that districts implement programs that focus on social-emotional learning and professional development centered on classroom management and fostering positive relationships between students, their families and school staff. Districts should also analyze school disciplinary policies to ensure they鈥檙e implemented equitably across racial and ethnic groups, researchers recommended.

鈥淭here is much that can be done to make sure that LGBTQ youth and youth from racial and ethnic minority groups feel safe, supported and connected in their schools,鈥� Ethier said, noting the importance of such school efforts specifically designed to improve the mental health of LGBTQ youth and reduce their risk of suicide. 鈥淲hen schools are less toxic for youth at increased risk for severe outcomes, schools are less toxic for everyone.鈥澛�