The Kids Are Not Alright: Solutions for the future

FILE - Children play in a school playground. (CityNews Image)

Posted April 14, 2023 5:00 am.

Last Updated April 20, 2023 10:29 am.

Educators and parents have been sounding the alarm about B.C.’s youngest students after they returned to full-time, in-person learning post-pandemic.

Many children have experienced high levels of anxiety and a lack of emotional awareness as they struggle to readjust.

In Part Four of our in-depth series, The Kids Are Not Alright, we look at potential solutions.

Whether it’s teachers, a school principal, parents, or stakeholders, there are two main themes that are emerging from everyone CityNews has spoken with: They all want more money invested in education and more resources.

Katie, who doesn’t want her last name published, has a second grader who’s currently on medication for ADHD. It’s been a struggle on a number of fronts, with Katie spending thousands of dollars on things like psychoeducational assessments and counselling.

She wants the provincial government to invest more money in children.

“Absolutely. What about our kids, right? What about our children who are struggling, who need help? When was the last time there was a big funding initiative for the school system? Like, real amounts of money to come make a difference?” Katie asked.

“I know people who were educational assistants who won’t go back because they were hit and kicked and punched and it’s a hard job, so there needs to be some kind of initiative to get support staff in there. Get the help these kids need.”

Tisha Krafte’s young son has been diagnosed with autism, ADHD, a speech disorder, and high anxiety, which she says got worse when he went back to school in Langley full-time.

Krafte has been fighting to get help for her son since the beginning of the school year. She tells CityNews she was told in December he would get consistent help, which he did for a few weeks, but by February it was down to about 1.5 hours a day for four days a week.

“In Langley, if a child was diagnosed with autism, say in October, the school district then has to review with their school psychologist the paperwork that you had to hand into them. It’s not immediate that child is going to get any support because then they have to have the funding and [what] if there isn’t enough staff?” Krafte asked.

She says it’s a difficult pill to swallow for any parent whose child is autistic, for example, who finds out they won’t get the help they need.

“They just spent all this money. They’ve advocated for themselves only to find out, ‘Nope, sorry, you’re going to have to wait. You have to wait in the shuffle. We have to review your paperwork first and then we have to wait until the next funding comes in and if we have the staff.'”

Clint Johnston is the president of the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF). He’s also a father and educator and feels more money is a big part of the solution.

“I appreciate the prioritization of [healthcare funding] that’s happened but we are not out [of the pandemic]. But we are on our way out and we’re in, what I would call, a recovery from COVID mode. So, we did think that there would be a higher prioritization on education in this year’s budget. It’s getting to be a bit of a long wait,” Johnston said.

He says the BCTF raises concerns with the Ministry of Education every chance it gets.

BC Teachers’ Federation president Clint Johnston. (Courtesy BCTF)

“And the reason is not because this is the one thing, we want to talk about all the time but because all of the issues discussed and all of the solutions to them stem from this, really, particularly right now when we have such an acute shortage of teachers. Our job is to advocate for our membership and the public school system and that’s one of the key pieces if you continue to fund less and less. And I know the dollars go up every year and it can be complicated to follow if you’re just a member of the public, but dollars going up is usually inflation … but you look at those GDP numbers and they don’t lie. What per cent of our output, of our capacity, are we putting into the public education system? And that keeps going down.”

This year’s provincial budget does dedicate billions of dollars to education, including more than $160 million to help teachers, teacher psychologists, special education teachers, and counsellors.

The B.C. legislature building lit up in Victoria

FILE – The B.C. legislature building in Victoria. (B.C. Government Image)

Johnston says more money is always welcome because not being able to help a child in need is heartbreaking.

“I’ve had students who I know I could have done more with if I had the ability at the time and the resources to help them a little bit more and that is a crushing feeling you don’t forget,” he told CityNews.

A medical take

Dr. Alex Choi, a medical health officer at Vancouver Coastal Health, says, to be clear, the concerns outlined in this series are part of a bigger trend that emerged about a decade ago when the well-being of young people started dropping.

She explains there are a few reasons for that, such as child poverty, social media, and environmental factors.

“We have seen a worsening of what we were seeing before. We do seem to be seeing an increase in child stress, an increase in child mental health conditions, and a decrease in child mental wellness,” Choi explained.

“We look at survey data, we look at healthcare usage data, the academic literature, and what we’re hearing from schools, communities, and families, and I think it has started to look, unfortunately, very consistent.”

More from the series:

The survey she’s referring to is the B.C. COVID-19 Speak 2 Survey, which encouraged people to give their feedback about the province’s COVID-19 measures and how they affected their lives.

“We saw that 74.9 per cent said their child took part in less physical activity, 92.2 per cent said their child had more screen time, 62.8 per cent found that their child had fewer connections with family, 88.3 per cent said their child had fewer connections with friends. So, if you think about the things that keep up really mentally well, those connections with our friends and family, keeping active, making sure we’re eating well and sleeping well, those are all things that really suffered during the pandemic,” Choi said.

She says there’s also been an increase in eating disorders across the board, but more specifically among girls and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Choi understands people want solutions but admits it’s not that easy.

“When we think about what’s keeping kids well and what has been really damaging their mental health, we think about things like, again, sleep, physical literacy, physical activity, healthy eating, social connection — those are really the things that are falling apart. And I think there’s a temptation when we look at how to address these things to just jump to treatment, ‘Where’s the medication? Where’s the hospitalization?’ And I think it’s actually really important to keep in mind, what is the root of the problem?”

Choi feels addressing that will help ease the burden on young people, their families, and on a larger scale, the healthcare system.

She is among those who feel more money and resources will help.

“Even within our resource streams, we can also look at broadening the areas that we’re looking at. I think when we think about a lot of these things that are making kids unwell, these are things that are very collaborative in their approaches. So, how do you build social connection? Well, it’s really a combination of things. It’s the community. It’s the school. It’s the healthcare system. It’s everywhere the kids are. So, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for partnership as well.”

Choi says if you are a parent or guardian who is worried, check your local health authority’s website for help or speak to your doctor.

Premier weighs in

B.C. Premier David Eby says he’s aware there is a problem facing those in the school system.

“There has been a learning loss for kids during the pandemic. It’s obviously a North America-wide challenge and in British Columbia, we’re more fortunate in that we were able to keep schools open longer than many other places in Canada, so we’ve seen less learning loss than some other places, but it is a very serious issue.”

He adds the Ministry of Education is tracking “carefully” the progress of children going through the public school system.

“They’re looking at ways that they can provide additional supports to kids. This is an issue that school boards, teachers, principals, that parents are all grappling with — the long-term impacts of the pandemic and the lockdowns on kid, making sure they’re in the place we want them to be on graduation.”

Eby says getting students from where they are now to Grade 12 and beyond is something the provincial government is committed to seeing through but didn’t offer details of what kind of supports the province is considering.

“We’re making up that learning. Not just the book learning, but also the socialization that comes with hanging out with other kids and it’s an important project for all of us.”

The premier says youth mental health is a serious issue in B.C. schools.

“One of the challenges we have in our mental health system is the skill and trained people to be able to deliver that care and support and it’s not just in mental health, it’s in many other areas in our public system and private employers are also grappling with the same thing.

“We do have a future-ready skills program that’s targeting training in those particular areas. Our provincial nominee program, identifies key areas for recruitment of new arrivals to British Columbia — skillsets that we desperately need. So, when people move here, we’re recruiting folks to help us with that skills gap that we have, but also that when they come here that their credentials are recognized so they can actually get to work in those areas,” he said.