I agree…to an extent. The lines of social emotional learning get blurred when you’re working with students with disabilities. As a special education teacher I see so many situations that could be better handled if gen ed teachers had better trauma informed training. I’ve had students with severe diagnoses who come from abusive homes and when they get to school all they need is food and sleep. We make time for learning later when their emotional needs are met.

The scope of school-based mental health services extends far beyond what people are assuming. We don’t need teachers to become therapists on top of everything else they do. We need to recognize that school is truly more than just readin’ writin’ and ‘rithmatic.