SMALL MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF EXPERIENCES WITH STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS

Students struggle with mental health needs. Student support staff are, within the school, regularly the first employees to encounter and respond to the students’ specific mental health needs. It is not uncommon for students’ mental health needs to be professionally undiagnosed and professionally unsupported. Barriers to professional treatment are plentiful and when students lack support for their mental health needs, academic and social issues are exacerbated. For these and other reasons, schools struggle to respond to students’ mental health needs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the lived experiences of student support staff (school counselors, school social workers, and school nurses) who work in small magnet high schools as they work to support students with mental health needs. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven student support staff from three different small magnet high schools within a public school district in North Carolina. After coding the transcribed interviews, four themes emerged from the data: 1) Magnet school student support staff are not professional therapists. 2) Magnet school student support staff struggle to perform their duties/roles. 3) Academic rigors and expectations in magnet high schools contribute to students' mental health needs. 4) Barriers to students abound and some are unique to the magnet school experience. Utilization of existing support structures such as Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and/or 504 Plans and the Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework is recommended in conjunction with research-based mental health support programs to assist student support staff and schools in supporting students’ mental health needs.