A new survey of public school principals reveals a significant gap in mental health screening across U.S. schools. Less than a third of the nation’s public schools conduct mental health screenings, and many of those that do report difficulty meeting students’ needs. The survey, published recently in JAMA Network Open, is the first since 2016 to poll school principals on children’s mental health, and comes amid anxiety and depression persisting at alarming rates among U.S. teens.
The percentage of U.S. public schools that screen for mental health issues has risen from 13 percent to 30.5 percent over the past nine years. The survey of 1,019 principals asked three key questions: whether they screen for student mental health issues, what steps are taken for students identified with anxiety or depression, and how easy or hard it is to find adequate mental health care.
The most common step taken for struggling students is notifying parents—nearly 80 percent of schools did that. Seventy-two percent offer in-person treatment, while about half refer to an outside mental health provider. Less than 20 percent offer telehealth treatment. When asked about accessing care, 41 percent described the task as “hard” or “very hard,” a result researchers said is unsurprising given the nationwide shortage of mental health providers.
School-based screening programs are concentrated in larger schools with 450 students or more and in districts with larger populations of racial and ethnic minority students. Harvard Medical School’s Hao Yu, a co-author, noted that before COVID, about a quarter of children had varying degrees of mental health problems, and the pandemic worsened the issue. The federal government recently slashed $1 billion in previously approved school mental health funding, presenting a significant barrier to expanding this critical work.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/08/public-schools-a-weak-link-in-efforts-to-protect-teen-mental-health-study-suggests/