NJ Students Of Color Have Reduced Access To Mental Health Staff

NEW JERSEY — A new report from the New Jersey Policy Perspective shows that while access to mental health staff for white and Asian students in New Jersey has increased over the past several years, it has actually decreased for Black students.

Their report, which you can read here, also found that school districts that enroll more students of color are more likely to impose disciplinary actions on their students, instead of giving students access to mental health staff.

"Given New Jersey’s much higher poverty rates for children of color, and the profound influence poverty has on mental health, these trends are a cause for great concern," wrote Mark Weber of New Jersey Policy Perspective. "In other words: New Jersey’s Black and Hispanic/Latinx students are more likely to live in poverty and more likely to be suspended from school, even as their access to mental health professionals is decreasing."

In schools that have higher poverty rates and reduced access to mental health staff, those same students are more likely to suffer harsh disciplinary consequences.

The think tank looked at mental health staff and resources in New Jersey schools in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They said they also did this because of renewed fears about school shootings

Federal data show 74 percent of public schools in the Northeast report an increase in students seeking mental health services since the start of the pandemic.

The shortage of school workers is a state-wide issue, but schools with a high percentage of African-American and Hispanic students are disproportionately experiencing reduced levels of mental health staff, school nurses and social workers, their report found.