Sioux Falls, SD: "Student mental health needs are an 'immediate challenge' for South Dakota schools"

Jan 17, 2018, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Principal to lawmakers: Mental illness, behavior disorders an 'immediate challenge' for schools https://www.google.com/search?q=school+behavior&rlz=1C1OKWM_enUS772US772&tbs=sbd:1&tbm=nws&ei=Xv1fWoiwKJG2sAWZ9L74BQ&start=10&sa=N&biw=806&bih=486&dpr=1.25 Thousands of children are going unserved by South Dakota's mental health care system, which sends more money to the state psychiatric hospital instead of community-based providers that work in homes and schools. Student mental health needs are an 'immediate challenge' for South Dakota schools, a Spearfish elementary school Principal Nick Gottlob told lawmakers Wednesday. Gottlob was one of about a half-dozen principals and superintendents to address the House Education Committee during an informational meeting Wednesday morning. He spent the majority of his time detailing the challenges schools face in educating students with mental illness and behavior disorders. "We accept the call to serve those kids," Gottlob said. "But the resources to serve those kids are often a challenge." In Spearfish, he added, there appears to be an increasing number of students coming from a crisis situation at home creating behavior issues at school. … "There have always been kids who've had issues, but it just seems within the last 10 years or so, there seem to be so many more incidents of this," Holms said. "And you wonder why." … Gottlob gave the example of a 7-year-old student in Spearfish who was assaulting other students. The student was placed in out-of-district services for several months, but after returning, the child again assaulted someone at school. … While that's more of the exception than the rule, schools still have to find ways to work with those students, Gottlob said. "We don't have the luxury in public school to say, 'That's not our problem,'" he said to lawmakers. "The problem that those 7- and 8-year-olds inherit is our problem, and someday it'll be your problem."