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Educating global citizens for a changing world
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Clemente Family Update 5/16/2022
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Dear CPS Colleagues, Families, and Supporters,
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As the leader of Chicago Public Schools, and a parent of two current students, there is nothing more important to me than the health of our students, both physically and emotionally. Throughout the month of May, which has been designated as Mental Health Awareness Month, CPS is making conversations about mental health a top priority in our school communities, and we are encouraging parents and guardians to use the resources below to drive conversations with their children about mental health.
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Introducing Please StayEven before the start of the pandemic, young people across the country had begun dealing with more mental, social, and emotional health issues; these issues have been heightened by the challenges of COVID-19. Earlier in the week, CPS launched the Please Stay mental health and suicide prevention campaign — a program designed to help students in grades 7 through 12 prioritize their mental health and reach out for support when they need it.
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Created by the Born This Way Foundation and Find Your Anchor, this initiative is a response to the concerning rise in depression, anxiety disorders, and suicide and that we are seeing nationally among our young people. Our teachers and counselors will be using the materials available through Please Stay to help educate students about self-care and offer tips and resources that can help them cope with stress. Our students will also be encouraged to take the Please Stay Pledge this month, in which they declare that they are “Here to Stay,” and pledge to reach out for help when they need it.
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Additional Mental Health Supports for StudentsRecognizing the growing need for mental health support in school, our budget for next year contains funding to hire more nurses, social workers, and counselors who will be working in our schools next year. We have also recently adopted a Comprehensive Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Policy to help schools ensure students are comfortable talking about mental health and know who to reach out to if they need support. In addition, we will be working with our partners at Lurie Children’s Hospital to put a Behavioral Health Team (BHT) in every network school by the 2023-24 school year. These teams specialize in identifying those students who have behavioral health needs and connecting them with the interventions they need to be successful.
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I hope you’ll ask your children about the discussions they are having in school this month around mental health. This will show them that it is a safe thing to talk about, and will hopefully lead to these important conversations continuing at home. Together, we can make sure our children know that they are seen, and that they are surrounded by people who care for them and who will do whatever it takes to help them be happy and successful both in and outside of the classroom.
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Chief Executive OfficerChicago Public Schools
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