Giving Compass' Take:

• Education Dive reports on the gaps in mental health support for teens and talks to experts that say helping students with social-emotional needs is an essential part of the learning process.

• What can we do to make sure schools have enough professionals and counselors in place? This article raises alarms that caseloads are building up and nearly 80% of students who need help aren't getting it.

• Here's more on why schools are struggling with mental health help.

It is estimated that 13% to 20% of children living in the United States has experienced a mental health disorder in the last year. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, one in five adolescents between 13 and 18 years old has or will have a serious mental illness, and suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth aged 10 to 24.

However, there is a shortage of mental health professionals nationwide, and children in rural areas are most impacted — 65% of non-metropolitan counties don’t have a psychiatrist and 47% don’t have a psychologist. At the same time, many students of color in urban areas are often concentrated in high-poverty areas of cities otherwise thought of as booming metropolises. These students often have a higher need for mental health services because of the things they experience in their daily lives, but often cannot access these professionals because of the high cost of treatment.

A nationwide shortage of school psychologists and counselors disproportionately affects these students as well, as they often attend more crowded, under-resourced schools, though they have the greatest need. All of these factors contribute to what is typically an eight to 10-year gap between the onset of mental illness and treatment for children and youth, and nearly 80% of students who need mental health treatment in this country don’t get it because school staff have much-higher-than-recommended caseloads.

Read the full article about addressing mental health issues and academic success by Autumn A. Arnett at Education Dive.