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Integrating U.S. Federal Efforts to Address the Multifaceted Problems of Children: A Historical Perspective on National Education and Child Mental Health Policies

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Abstract

This review examines the U.S. federal response to the crisis in child mental health in relation to its efforts to address the crisis in public education. By presenting side-by-side federal responses to these two seemingly unrelated crises, this review highlights the co-occurring nature of the problems. The interconnectedness of these crises explains in part why the federal initiatives that have dealt with these problems separately, in isolation, have been minimal in their effectiveness. It is concluded, therefore, that federal efforts in improving children’s mental health and academic performance should be integrated to achieve optimal outcomes. From a national policy perspective, we recommend that children’s social-emotional development be incorporated into reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. This policy enhancement could effectuate (a) a broader accountability system for both academic performance and social-emotional development, and (b) a greater system of care for child mental health with schools as the focal point.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Drs. Gary M. Blau, Gary Resnick, and Joe Kotzin for their thoughtful reviews of this manuscript. This work was supported in part by a grant from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) to the first author. AERA receives funds for its “AERA Grants Program” from the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Education Statistics of the Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education) under NSF Grant #REC-0634035.

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  1. 6300 Ocean Drive, FC 215, Unit 5818, Corpus Christi, TX, 78412-5818, USA

    Guang Zeng

  2. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Erling E. Boe & Diana Slaughter-Defoe

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Rebecca J. Bulotsky-Shearer

  4. Department of Psychology, West Chester University, West Chester, PA, USA

    Eleanor D. Brown

  5. Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Barbara Lopez

  6. Department of Educational Leadership, Curriculum and Instruction, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA

    Guang Zeng & Sherrye D. Garrett

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Correspondence to Guang Zeng.

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Zeng, G., Boe, E.E., Bulotsky-Shearer, R.J. et al. Integrating U.S. Federal Efforts to Address the Multifaceted Problems of Children: A Historical Perspective on National Education and Child Mental Health Policies. School Mental Health 5, 119–131 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-012-9096-7

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