CECILIA, Ky. (AP) - For fourth-grader Leah
Rainey, the school day now begins with what
her teacher calls an
"emotional check-in.
"It's great to see you. How are you feeling?"
chirps a cheery voice on her laptop screen. It
asks her to click an emoji matching her state of
mind: Happy. Sad. Worried. Angry. Frustrated.
Calm. Silly. Tired.
Depending on the answer, Leah, 9, gets advice
from a cartoon avatar on managing her mood
and a few more questions: Have you eaten
breakfast? Are you hurt or sick? Is everything
OK at home? Is someone at school being
unkind? Today, Leah chooses
"silly," but says
she struggled with sadness during online
learning.
At Lakewood Elementary School, all 420
students will start their days the same way this
year. The rural Kentucky school is one of
thousands across the country using the
technology to screen students' state of mind
and alert teachers to anyone struggling.
In some ways, this year's back-to-school
season will restore a degree of pre-pandemic
normalcy: Most districts have lifted mask
mandates, dropped COVID vaccine
requirements and ended rules on social
distancing and quarantines.
But many of the pandemic's longer-lasting
impacts remain a troubling reality for schools.
Among them: the harmful effects of isolation
and remote learning on children's emotional
well-being.
Student mental health reached crisis levels
last year, and the pressure on schools to figure
out solutions has never been greater. Districts
across the country are using federal pandemic
money to hire more mental health specialists,
rolling out new coping tools and expanding
curriculum that prioritizes emotional health.
Still, some parents don't believe schools should
be involved in mental health at all. So-called
social-emotional learning, or SEL, has become
the latest political flashpoint, with
conservatives saying schools use it to promote
progressive ideas about race, gender and
sexuality, or that a focus on well-being takes
attention from academics.
But at schools like Lakewood, educators say
helping students manage emotions and stress
The school, in a farming community an hour's
drive south of Louisville, has used federal
money to create "take-a-break" corners in
each classroom. Students can rifle through a
"self-regulation kit" with tips on deep
breathing, squishy stress balls and
acupuncture rings, said school counselor
Shelly Kerr. The school plans to build a
"Reset
Room" this fall, part of an emerging national
trend to create campus sanctuaries where
students can go to decompress and speak with
a counselor.
The online student screener Lakewood uses,
called Closegap, helps teachers identify shy,
quiet kids who might need to talk and would
have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Closegap founder Rachel Miller launched the
online platform in 2019 with a few schools and
saw interest explode after the pandemic hit.
This year, she said, more than 3,600 U.S
schools will be using the technology, which has
free and premium versions.