Young people have valuable expertise about what supports their mental health in schools, according to a new study from Kate Somerville of UW–Madison’s School Mental Health Collaborative (SMHC). But a companion study, also by Somerville, suggests that even when educators and community members support those ideas in principle, friction with current school, health care and policy systems can make transformative change difficult.

“One of the most striking findings across these studies is the tension between what students say they need and what current systems are structured to provide,” said Somerville, a post-doctoral research fellow at SMHC, based in the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research. “The students offered a compelling vision for more equitable school mental health supports, but the companion study suggests there are significant structural barriers that can make those changes difficult to achieve.”

Yet that doesn’t mean would-be reformers should give up, she added.

“We shouldn’t be discouraged by this complexity,” said Somerville. “Instead, we can look at the complexity as giving us many points of opportunity for creating change or developing cross-sector solutions.”

When policymakers and educators talk about student mental health, young people themselves are not always included in the conversation. Somerville’s new studies, published online in American Educational Research Journal in July and August, put youth perspectives at the center, asking what students think schools should do differently and examining whether existing systems are equipped to make those changes.

In the first study, Somerville worked with 12 high school students from nine states who served as youth researchers. Over several months, the students collected and analyzed information from their schools and communities, then developed a rubric outlining what they believed an effective and equitable school mental health system should look like.

The students argued schools should:

• Provide adequate mental health staffing
• Create identity-affirming and inclusive learning environments
• Offer strong extracurricular opportunities
• Engage students in decision-making
• Use restorative approaches to discipline
• Strengthen connections with families and communities
• Support teachers’ mental health and working conditions

A common thread connecting all seven recommendations: shifting power toward students and taking a more preventative approach by addressing the underlying conditions that affect mental health, rather than focusing only on treating problems after they occur. The youth researchers viewed student well-being as closely tied to issues such as representation in the curriculum, belonging, school climate, discipline practices, community resources, and opportunities to influence decisions that affect their lives.

The study highlights the value of youth expertise, finding that students offered insights into school mental health that traditional policy discussions often overlook. Somerville hoped that finding would be school leaders’ main takeaway from the study.

“Giving young people the space and support to talk and critically think about their own mental health and well-being can help us improve educational environments and show youth that we are listening,” Somerville said. “In the first study, youth researchers came up with so many out-of-the-box ideas for promoting well-being and mental health, and I imagine that young people everywhere would have similarly innovative ideas if given the support and opportunity to meaningfully engage in these conversations.”

Somerville’s second paper asks a more difficult question: How realistic is it to implement that vision?

In the companion study, Somerville examined the feasibility of the youth recommendations in one urban school district. She interviewed six community-based mental health providers who worked closely with schools from outside district structures.

That study found some reasons for optimism. Participants described strong community organizations, growing awareness of mental health needs, existing school-community partnerships, and supportive funding initiatives as assets that could help advance change.

But providers also identified interconnected obstacles. These included shortages of qualified mental health professionals, difficulties establishing and maintaining school partnerships, barriers created by insurance systems, inconsistent access to services across schools, stigma surrounding mental health, and governance structures that concentrated decision-making power in ways that could limit innovation.

“Many of the challenges identified by community mental health providers weren’t about a lack of commitment to students,” Somerville noted. “They were rooted in broader issues such as staffing shortages, funding constraints, fragmented systems, and competing priorities. Those conditions can make even widely supported changes difficult to sustain.”

Study findings have implications for how school principals are prepared and supported, and how school mental health interventions are designed and evaluated. Somerville noted that creating conditions for equity-minded school mental health systems to take hold requires engaging with policy across health, education, and social sectors.

“We need to listen carefully to students about what they need and pay attention to the larger systems that shape what’s possible,” she said. “Both perspectives are essential for meaningful and lasting change.”

About the Researcher

Kate Somerville conducts interdisciplinary research using youth-engaged methods to examine how education policy and school environments shape youth well-being.

About the School Mental Health Collaborative (SMHC)

SMHC promotes access to high-quality, evidence-based, and culturally responsive school mental health practices. The collaborative is a national network of researchers, practitioners, and family and youth advocates working to reduce inequalities in school mental health systems and practices. Visit the SMHC website for more details.