Bill Tackles Mental Health in Delaware Elementary Schools

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DELAWARE – “You’d be very surprised to learn that even some of our youngest children suffer from anxiety and depression and the way that it manifest is different for each child,” said Delaware State Education Association’s Kristin Dwyer.

Yes. Children go through it too and legislators in the Delaware General Assembly plan to tackle the issue of mental health in the education system. House Bill 100 would establish a mental health services unit in state elementary schools. “The intent of this bill is to make sure that there’s a ton of professionals within the elementary levels throughout the state of Delaware,” said Representative Bryan Shupe.

Lawmakers say identifying these problems early on helps prevent more harm from happening in the future. “A lot of those resources are in the middle school and high school ages and what has happened is when that trauma happens at a really early age, these children haven’t had professional help and start to build unhealthy foundations on how to deal with these things in their lives,” said Rep. Shupe.

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