Reopening schools won’t end child mental health crisis, experts say

Child health care experts say that a return to full-time in-person learning, which Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker moved to mandate this week, will help alleviate some of the pressures placed on children’s mental health over the past year but will not be a silver bullet.

In pushing the state Board of Education to force elementary and middle schools to reopen, Baker cited one of the more troubling outcomes of the pandemic on kids – the dramatic increase in mental health problems among students.

Nationwide, the average share of emergency room visits related to mental health among children rose 44 percent from mid-March through October last year, compared to the same period in 2019, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more from The Boston Globe.

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