The Hopeful Futures Campaign, a coalition of 17 national mental health organizations, has released a groundbreaking report called America’s School Mental Health Report Card. It analyzes the efforts of all 50 states and the District of Columbia in addressing the mental health needs of students in schools.

The need for mental health services is acute. As the report states, “America has an urgent youth mental health crisis. In 2019, more than one in three high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness of hopelessness, and one in five students seriously considered suicide.” The pandemic only exacerbated a crisis that was already there.

A key takeaway from the report? “One of the most effective approaches to get youth the help they need is to meet them where they’re at––in schools––with comprehensive mental health systems.” They recommend that schools have a ratio of students to school psychologists of no more than 1:500, a goal only Idaho and the District of Columbia bettered. California’s ratio is nearly double the recommended ratio at 1:998.

Learn more about the Hopeful Futures Campaign here.

To see how each state fared, you can read the report in its entirety here:

America’s School Mental Health Report Card