Giving Compass' Take:

• Andre Perry explains the role of emotional health is essential to school safety as a preventative measure against violence including shootings. 

• How can funders help schools give students the support they need to develop stable emotional health? 

• Learn about school safety spending. 

the rise of mass shootings in schools has scrambled our thinking about what ultimately keeps our children safe. The problem isn’t that schools aren’t safe enough, but that students don’t feel secure enough in school communities. Emotionally healthy, well-adjusted youth don’t tear through their classrooms armed with weaponry. And we can do our part in keeping schools safe by giving out hugs like candy on Halloween, helping kids feel a sense of belonging, of welcome, and making them feel safe enough to seek help when they need it. (Of course, we can also do our part by making guns harder to access, but that’s a whole other column.)

This feeling of security is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls “school connectedness,” which it defines as “the belief held by students that adults and peers in the school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals.” When students feel more connected to school, the CDC says, they are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors and succeed academically.

Read the full article about emotional health by Andre Perry at The Hechinger Report.